Like Rapture
by Koutonori
Summary: Happiness and freedom were two things Lucy lacked in her life. After her mom died their home turned cold and unloving, her dad seemed to care more about his work than anything. Finally, on her nineteenth birthday that'd been forgotten, she knew enough was enough and left in search of her own life. But an odd encounter with a rosy haired man would give her more than she planned. AU
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** quick note, the definition of rapture that I'm using in the title is "feeling of intense joy or pleasure" not the second coming of Christ...

just wanted to clear that up in case anyone thought otherwise. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Lucy, in her own mind, knew she was a girl with many different talents. It wasn't an arrogant piece of knowledge, she didn't feel extraordinarily proud of it, given it was the privilege she was born into that made it quite easy for her, but it was a fact and she acknowledged it as just that. She also knew she was pretty. It had been said to her a thousand times by a thousand people at a thousand mind numbing parties. The teenager didn't exactly take pride in it but she was glad she had been gifted with her mom's looks.

Lucy Heartfilia was smart, kind, easy going, and obedient. She had to be. Her father was a well-known CEO of an _outrageously_ successful company, one she had been told over and over she would have to succeed, and the kind of lifestyle she led was one that required tact and intelligence.

The world was practically at her feet if she wanted it. Her brain was up for the task, her beauty would ensure a husband later down the line, so she'd been told, and her mouth was armed with charmed words that could win over any competitor. Her life was text book perfect, one that many people would probably and seriously kill to have, yet there was a question in the back of her mind that begged an answer. Every time she smiled at a stranger during one of her father's parties, it nagged. Every time she put her smarts to use and came up with a great answer, it cried. Every time she saw her "perfect" father, the image of her dead mother flashed in her mind. The question, small as it was, was loud and annoying. The sound of it just grew larger and larger everyday like a wailing monster that hadn't been fed in years.

And one night when Lucy Heartfilia was feeling especially lonely, the night of her nineteenth birthday that had been forgotten, she finally spoke the question-

"Why am I not happy?"

Lucy had read it would be liberating if one were to speak their worries or problems aloud, but if anything she had only found it made her feel worse. Instead of liberating her from her troubles, it sent her scrambling for an answer. She hadn't acknowledged it before, she didn't want to, but now that she had the deafening presence of something being severely _wrong_, it pulled on her mind like two teams relentlessly playing tug-of-war.

It was the night of July 1st, the night of a birthday long forgotten by her dad, that Lucy had decided to make a change.

She sat up in her bed, a humongous thing that could probably fit about five people on it, clad in her pajamas and patted her hand all around her pillow until she found her phone to check the time. It was about seven in the evening, a little early to be going to bed she knew, but her mood hadn't exactly been welcoming to idle chat from her butlers and maids. They were the only ones who had acknowledged what day it was, and even though she appreciated their thoughtfulness, it had never been enough.

Lucy edged closer to the foot of her bed, and let her feet dangle off the end, the cold air swishing around her ankles. There was still time for her to go to her father's office. Maybe she could tell him and maybe he might not get angry… She scoffed at herself. The last time she had tried to remind him of her birthday had been when she was still a child. The only thing that had come from that attempt was a ruined rice ball and broken feelings.

It was only fair that she wanted recognition from her dad on her birthday though, right? It wasn't a burden, was it? What kind of father wouldn't remember their own kids' birthday?

The girl slid off her bed and let her feet touch the ground, her head hanging down, "If mom were h-"

Lucy cut the sentence short, eyes wide and shocked at her own mouth.

_No. No, no, no, you're not doing this today. You aren't going to break apart on your own birthday._

She strode over to her bathroom door and swung it open, turning the faucet on as soon as she got to her sink. Hopefully some cold water would help her calm down.

A long time ago Lucy had sworn off that sentence. Being that the logical side of her knew it was useless to think about, and the emotional side of her knew that thinking about it would tear her apart. Her mother's death had never been brought up once since it happened, and she didn't dare ask anyone about it. The result of the silence though, is that her feelings never had an out. There had been no words exchanged between her and her father, no comfort, nothing.

And the teenage Lucy thought she liked it that way.

What use was there yearning for someone that had been out of her life for more than nine years? What good would come of wanting to talk about someone who was gone and had no hope of consoling her now? Why did she want to? Why did she want her mother so bad when she could hardly stand to think about her?

Lucy gripped the sides of her sink, forgetting to turn the faucet off, forgetting what she had sworn, and let a surprisingly loud sob rip from her throat, "If only mom were here…"

And like a dam was broken, her tears began to spill out of her eyes and down her cheeks, all the way past her nose and chin, falling on her knees. The sensation startled her.

Ah? When had she sat down?

The girl found herself sitting against her tub, with legs curled up against her chest. A common position she used nowadays.

It was odd, she thought, how a single sentence could completely ruin a person. How even the most insignificant order of words could mean so much to someone. And they were insignificant, she knew, the words she had just spoken. They meant nothing and would gain her nothing. She knew this. She knew it. Her father had scolded her child self so many times for trying to further these thoughts with him. He told her it was useless and she should know that. And she did know it.

She knew. She knew, she knew, she knew.

But who was she kidding? She didn't know anything.

Lucy Heartfilia had never understood why it was so wrong to want to talk about her mother. It was her _mother_ for Christ sake, so why was it that she felt like she was committing a crime when asking about her? Why did the very mention of her mother's name send her father flying off the handle? What made him so angry? Why… did her father never look her in the eye anymore?

_Pitiful…_

It was pitiful… Anyone would think she was pitiful. A girl slumped against a tub in her pajamas with messy hair and tears streaming down her face was no way for a "young lady of her stature" to act. If someone saw her now it would only cause commotion. Commotion that would surely get back to her dad-

She snapped out of it then.

Her legs carried her body upward and back toward her sink. She stuck her hands under the water and threw some on her face, hoping to erase any sign of crying from her eyes. Her father couldn't find out about this. She didn't know what he'd do, assuming he even cared, if he found out.

"God…" she sighed to herself, shutting the sink off, "What the hell am I doing…?"

The girl clicked her bathroom light off and went back into her room, stopping for a moment just beside her bed… "What _am_ I doing?"

Lucy asked herself that question, not fully knowing what she meant until a few seconds later it hit her.

The teenagers' brain went into what felt like overdrive as she began to process a new set of information she hadn't bothered, or had been too scared, to think about before. There was no real reason for her to be in that house. She was already nineteen years old, a legal adult; she could do anything she wanted.

_Anything_ she wanted.

A small, genuine smile spread on her face for the first time in over nine years and an odd sensation that she hadn't realized was "hope" spread all over her body.

There was no real reason for her to do what her _father_ _wanted_.

There was nothing stopping her but herself from leaving and never having to be afraid of what she might do wrong ever again.

She darted across the room, only half aware of her actions.

There was no reason for her to feel like absolute shit. No reason she should have to stay in that miserable place she'd been calling home.

Frantically, her hands opened her drawer and began stuffing shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, and lingerie into a suitcase- If she didn't act on this weird high she was on now, she'd be too afraid to do it later.

What was she doing exactly?

She was _actually_ going to run away from home.

A hysterical laugh left her mouth. It couldn't even be called running away anymore. She was an adult. She could've left when she was eighteen if she had thought about it. For a moment she mentally slapped herself for not doing so sooner. It could've saved her an extra year of emotional strain…

Once she was done packing her things, if that sorry excuse for shoving items into a suitcase could be called packing, she ran over to her closet to grab shoes next. What she owned were mostly heels, expensive little things she had actually enjoyed buying, but she also had her fair share of sensible shoes as well. Her favorites were actually a pair of leather boots with no real heel to speak of. Her father had obviously disapproved, saying they look ratty and she should never be seen in something as "poor looking as those", but she liked them and bought them in secret. To be honest, it was one of the biggest acts of defiance she'd ever committed.

And now she was going to commit the biggest one yet.

When she had grabbed her stash of money she'd collected over the years, doing jobs here and there for the company, everything she needed was finally in her hands.

Quickly, she went over a mental list she had just made up:

_Clothes? Check_

_Underwear? Check_

_Shoes? Check_

_Photos?_

_…check_

_Money? Check_

_Electronics…? _

Her head swiveled around and she realized she hadn't grabbed her phone or her laptop. She quickly gathered both things and went back to her list.

_Electronics? Check~_

_Food? Don't need it. I'll get something on my way._

_Wait- did I even change yet?_

Lucy looked down and then slapped herself on the head, "Okay Lucy. You're just gonna leave in your pj's _right_? Get it together."

Finally, once she had changed there was nothing else she needed, she was set. Now all that was left to do was leave a note. The girl grabbed a pen and a piece of paper she had out on her desk and tried to think of something suitable for the situation.

_Hmmm…?_

_"Fuck you dad, I'm out?"_

She'd seen it in a movie once and it seemed very effective…

_"you scumbag-?"_

_No, no. I need something that'll throw him off my case for a while… something that makes him think I'm not really leaving for good…_

_Ah! _ She mentally gasped, _I got it._

The pen steadied in her hand as she wrote the following-

"Dear father,

I'm leaving for a while. I've noticed that I'm not knowledgeable of the world outside ours. My experience is very poor compared to yours and I'm finding myself dissatisfied with how little I've seen and done. I'll only be gone for a short while, and I figured I could do this of my own free will now that I'm nineteen. I have money, I know where I'm going," which was a complete lie. She had no idea where she would go yet. "and I'll try to make something of myself. In the time I'm away I'll do something worthy of the Heartfilia name. I didn't want to bother you, as you are a busy man, so I'll leave this note and let you do your work. I know you may be angered by this, but it is something I need to do as someone who is going to succeed you one day.

Accordingly,

Lucy Heartfilia."

_ Oh man, he'll eat this up like his favorite piece of accounting information._

Lucy giggled to herself in light of her joke, joking not being something she got to do often.

With a final dot on her letter, she sealed the thing shut inside an envelope and signed "TO JUDE HEARTFILIA" on the front.

She was finally ready.

Finally, she would get to leave it all behind and start somewhere new.

Lucy didn't know where she was headed as she left her room and made her way out of the mansion, thankful no one had seen her, but what she _did_ know was that she'd never need to feel guilty about crying to herself again. She was going to be free of broken relationships, and wasn't going to let anything have control of her ever again.

As she walked past all the cars, and fancy fountains, she blew a kiss to her mother's grave, which was more accurately described as a statue, and began on the road that led away from their family estate. The tears she had begun to shed only worsened the further the got from her home.

_It's okay._ She lied to herself.

_I'll be fine. None of this can bother me anymore. Once I leave… all of this will be behind me._

Lucy Heartfilia was going to live whatever kind of life she wanted. The young woman of nineteen years old was going to be _completely_ in control for once.

Or so she had thought.

Little did she know that some miles away, far from where she was now, a young man of also nineteen, with rosy pink hair, was a like storm waiting to happen. And that storm was going to lift her up into the air and never let her down.


	2. Chapter 2

Natsu Dragneel, a man of nineteen years, knew he was a very straightforward person. He liked that. His personality and morals often got him into fights when he was younger, but he _loved_ a good fight. It didn't bother him that he'd go home bruised and sometimes bloodied because he knew he was able to beat some sense into someone who'd done something wrong. Justice had always been a big part of his attitude and even now, as he was steadily leaving his teen years, he had a very keen sense of what was right and wrong.

He was simple minded, loud, friendly to those who were friendly back, loyal, reckless, and protective. Natsu knew where his priorities lied, and didn't take shit from people who tried to mess with them. Not that he was a rude person in nature, he just hated when people were untruthful and just plain bad. It boggled his mind that people would want to do wrong anyway. It was just one of those things he couldn't wrap his head around.

Most of his way of thinking had been drilled into him, not unwillingly, by the people and boss down at the place he worked. Well, he didn't exactly work _there_, more like he worked _for_ them… if that made sense. It was a unique kind of workplace, and though the kind of business they ran was beginning to become a little more common, he still thought that they were the absolute best. It was practically his home.

Fairy Tail Odd Jobs. Or normal ones. It didn't matter to be honest, that was just the name of the place.

They were pretty famous in name and reputation, recently anyway, and hell yeah he was going to brag about that, he was proud of it. Jobs come in from all over, to people who're working there at the time. Some are artists, some are good with metal works and others are really damn smart. Whatever you needed, Fairy Tail could provide. Of course your job had to be approved and accepted by someone, but it usually was. Though some jobs, that were probably pranks and if not then the people who submitted them were _sick_, pissed him the hell off.

Anyway, that was where Natsu had decided to place his loyalties.

He'd grown up with most of the people there anyhow, so to him it was normal that his home was a place like that. They were his family in a lot of ways and he'd do anything for them. The boss, old man, had kind of taken him in when he was a kid. There had been a lot of children there when he arrived, most of whom were just like him. No parents, no home, but they didn't seem like they were sad and helpless. He liked that a lot.

His smaller self had been going through a rough deal around the time he had met his boss, Makarov. His dad, well foster dad but he was still like a dad to him, had for some reason ditched him one day. He didn't have any kind of clue as to why that happened, but in result Natsu had been left to fend for himself at a very young age.

The boy had wandered into a town after a few days of aimlessly walking through the woods where they had lived. Igneel, he'd always loved his dad's name, had a small cottage for the two of them in the middle of a clearing, so he never really knew where he _actually_ lived. In his mind all there was to the world was just him and his father. Of course the two of them had made trips to the town once or twice, Igneel would go by himself most of the time, but you can image the shock young Natsu went through when he was forced to give up his previous lifestyle.

A few short hours after asking locals where he was and if they knew of a place to get food, a "possibly abandoned child" had been reported to the authorities. Some nice people he couldn't remember the names of had bought him food in attempt to keep him in one place long enough in order for the city to take him into custody.

Natsu hadn't understood what was going on until a full day of answering questions later he was temporarily placed inside a foster home. It took him two hours to run away.

And it was as he was making his escape that he met Makarov.

The old man, well old-ish man, at the time had been going about his business until a full speed Natsu had rammed into his chest, causing the both of them to curse up a storm and fall to the ground.

Long story short, and it was a _very_ long story, Makarov ended up taking Natsu back with him to his hometown and to Fairy Tail. Promptly introducing him to all the kids he'd come across in his lifetime that were similar to him in some way. Taking in all those kids was the last thing Makarov had expected himself to do, but his life had always been very unpredictable.

He allowed them all to stay in a small apartment strip he owned near the warehouse. There were a few adult tenants there so the kids were never completely unsupervised or unfed at night, but during the day they were free to do whatever. Most of the time they would just hang around Fairy Tail and leech free food and air conditioning off him, but despite his outward attitude, he didn't mind in the least.

In the end, Natsu was able to live a nice childhood along with all the other children while still maintaining his freedom. That "freedom" being he was able to camp out in the woods whenever he wanted. Which he guessed was odd by the looks people gave him when he told them, but he didn't care, it soothed him. Sometimes the city still felt like a stranger.

Of course once he reached a certain age, and he was finally able to take on jobs which he was _ecstatic_ about, Natsu moved out of the arranged housing he'd hardly lived in. The old man had told him his room would always be open to him if he wanted it, given no one else was paying to stay there, but Natsu had refused. Makarov had done enough for him already, and he thought it was finally time for him to repay some of it.

But on that particular day, that sunny, warm, perfect summer day, Natsu's mood was very, very sour.

He'd gone out, hoping to get some fresh air and get his mind off certain things, and decided to go to the warehouse, thinking maybe some company would distract him from his thoughts.

Wrong decision.

As soon as he walked in he wanted to walk right back out.

Every pair of eyes he saw were looking at him with the words, "Are you alright…?" behind them… and he knew why. He knew very well why. This happened every year.

The "anniversary", if you could even call it that, of the day he was abandoned was coming up soon. It was later that week actually, and every time it came around his mood dampened unwillingly. His friends seemed to take note of this and thought expressing their condolences would help him. Which it didn't, but he hadn't the heart to tell them that. So why was it he forgot that going there around that time was a bad decision?

"Hey Natsu!" Mirajane, the bartender of Fairy Tail, yeah they had a bar too, called out to him as soon as he entered, "You up for some food?"

He smiled and waved back, trying desperately to seem like he was feeling the exact opposite of what they thought, "Yeah sure!" he yelled from across the building, catching a few more eyes as he walked toward the woman.

"What are you up to today?" Mira grinned as she leaned on the counter, "Do you have a date?"

"Nah no date." If he had a dollar for every time she asked him that he'd have enough money to buy an island. Which kinda seemed like an awesome idea when he thought about it.

"Aw…" she actually sounded disappointed, "What a shame. Any girl would be lucky to have you!" She stood upright and smoothed out her apron, "So? What'll it be? The usual?" The usual being flaming hot jalapeno poppers with extra tabasco.

If it were any other day his mouth would already be watering, but he just couldn't bring himself to want it right now… he wouldn't let her know that of course, "Sounds good."

Her eyes thinned the slightest bit, measuring his reaction. She must've asked him that as a test.

In an instant her cheery smile was back, "Okay then! It'll be right out!" she chimed and disappeared into the kitchen.

_Maybe company wasn't such a good idea…_ Natsu thought to himself as he brought his elbows onto the bar.

No, he knew it wasn't a good idea, because right as she left all he wanted to do was leave. He could feel all the stares practically burning a hole in his back. They meant well but it felt like hungry wolves who wanted nothing more than to hug were threatening to attack him.

He looked to his left and saw Macao, who had a funny looking mustache to Natsu, speaking to Wakaba and daytime drinking. For a moment he considered if leaving was the right thing to do, but his body moved before he could fully consider it.

"Yo Macao." He hopped off his stool and walked over to the man, gaining his attention, "Could you tell Mira I had to take off?"

Macao looked confused, "Didn't you just get here?"

He nodded, "Yeah but I forgot I had a job on hold so just tell her I had to bail."

Just as he began to walk off he remembered, "Oh and she's makin' my poppers so do me a favor and eat them for me will ya? You know she doesn't like to waste food."

The middle-aged man choked on his drink and Wakaba laughed, "Are you nuts kid?! No one can eat those damned things but you! You want me to die or somethin?!"

"Thanks man!" Natsu grinned and slapped him on the back before leaving, pretending to be on his phone as he made his way out to avoid any more conversations.

Man he felt like shit for avoiding them…

But it just wasn't something he could deal with. It was _never_ something he could deal with. Maybe he should just hole up in his house for a few days… he had a cat… so he was more than enough for company.

As he walked the streets of the town, he thought about it more and more and it was really starting to seem like a valid idea. But before he could form a decision, his train of thought met a brick wall when he saw what was happening across the road.

Two men, probably around nineteen or twenty were ganging up on a much smaller man in front of them, your typical mugging. They had him pinned against the wall of an alleyway between a crafts shop and a restaurant, making sure no one could see them apparently. Natsu sighed and his eyebrow twitched. There was nothing he hated more than people taking advantage of others they knew had no chance of resisting, well there _were_ things he hated more but you get the picture.

"HEY!" Natsu's voiced boomed from the other side of street and immediately caught attention of the two larger men.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked roughly, his voice changing with the volume.

"Get lost." One man spoke simply and returned to harassing the victim for his wallet.

"Hey man what's the big deal?" the other spoke in a voice Natsu thought was quite possibly the most annoying one he'd ever heard, "It's not like you need the money right? You ain't gotta girlfriend to take out so just give it to us."

"I… actually do have a girlfriend…" the dude tried to level out the grounds, and Natsu knew what was coming next.

"Huh? You think it's funny to talk back don't you?! Let's see how much your laughin' when I beat the shit outta you!"

But the swing never made it to the younger man's face. Instead, Natsu, who had crossed the street in a matter of seconds, caught the man's fist and shoved it backwards, making it connect with the assaulter's own face.

Douche number one, which is what Natsu had labeled him in his head, made a confused noise, as he backed up wondering how the guy made it to him so fast. Immediately, Douche number two, who was making a god-awful expression, yelled out "you fucker!" and began to rush the pink haired man who was now in an extremely bad mood.

He ducked the swing easily and kicked number two in the gut before he came back up, not giving number one enough time to register what was happening when he landed a solid punch on his face.

"SHIT!" number two, staggering, groaned and held his stomach tightly.

Number one, who looked like he was on the verge of tears as he fell on his ass grabbed the side of his jaw and yelled, "What the fuck's your problem man?!"

Natsu, who'd had just about enough of this, let his calm demeanor fade and made a fear worthy expression, "You think you can just take and steal whatever you want? You think it's okay to rough up people who can't stand up to you in a fight?" he spoke as he walked closer to number one, who was almost whimpering, "If I thought the same as you, there'd be nothing to stop me from beating you all to a pulp right now… you want that?"

"n-n..o-"

"Cause it seems to me like you _do_."

Just as he was about to take another swing, he heard his name thunder in the alleyway.

"Natsu!"

He turned his head and his mind snapped back into place. He let go of number one's collar, unsure of when he'd grabbed it, and stood up, also unsure of when he had squat down.

"Yeah old man?" Natsu replied as he scratched his head and walked passed number two, who looked scared out of his mind, and the dude who'd almost been robbed.

Makarov stood at the opening into the street with his arms crossed over his chest, "What's going on here? First Mira comes and interrupts my work, acting like you died and now I see you beating someone up?!"

"I didn't exactly beat them u-"

"No excuses." He scolded.

"Yeah, yeah." Natsu said as he bent down and grabbed the guys' wallet that'd fallen, "Here you go. Try not to let it get almost stolen again." He put it in the guy's hand and walked past both him and Makarov, heading back onto the sidewalk.

"Thank you!" the dude managed to get out before Natsu disappeared from sight.

"Don't mention it!" his voice sounded from around the corner.

Makarov stayed where he was, eyeing both douche number one and two who were still in their same positions, "If you don't want that boy to teach you another lesson…" his expression became cold, revealing his own disgust at their actions, "you'd better clean your acts up. Today."

He motioned for the blameless one to leave the alley, looked back on the pair one last time, and moved on to find where Natsu had gone to. As he'd suspected, the boy, in his eyes he was still a boy, had made his way to the local park, and was sitting at the very top of the jungle gym.

The park was a nice one, it was large and off to the side of the town, so it was close to where the woods met the city. It was very shaded with an abundance of trees and benches and open spots for people to have a picnic if they wanted. If Makarov were being honest, it was one of his favorite places in the city; next to the bar in his warehouse of course.

Natsu only liked it for the trees and jungle gym.

"What are you doing up there?" the old man called up to the nineteen year old.

"Dunno." He replied simply.

He was actually kind of mad at himself for almost losing it back there, but his mind had gone back to being elsewhere so he couldn't really bring himself to care all that much.

Makarov sighed, "Are you sulking?"

Natsu brought his legs up to his chest, resting his chin upon his knees, "and if I am?" his voice was sarcastic, "Are you going to scold me for that too?"

"That wasn't for a job. You know that if it isn't for one you have no business getting into fi-"

"Yeah, I know. I got it." He cut the old man off and immediately regretted it. This was just not Natsu's day…

If it were any other time, Makarov would smack the teenager over the head and chew him out over interrupting him, lovingly of course, but he knew very well why Natsu was in a bad mood. It was to be expected. The kid was dumped by his father at a young age, who wouldn't be bitter? Natsu, obviously had denied that fact many times over the years, but he knew him better than that. Family was extremely important to him. That included his long gone dad.

"Natsu…" the elder began.

"Don't." he cut him off yet again but this time he stood up on the bars of the jungle gym and easily made his way down, "I'm fine. Nothing a job won't help." Natsu lied with a smile that could deceive any stranger.

But Makarov was certainly no stranger.

The old man could hardly bring a grin to his face but he managed anyway, "I'm all for you working, but maybe you oughtta take a break. Youth needs to be lived, not rushed."

"You sound ancient." Natsu joked as he walked off with his boss/caretaker, patting his head, "Should I get you a cane or something?"

"Shut up you damn brat!" the not so old man fumed and swatted his hand away.

Natsu only laughed.

"In all seriousness," Makarov began once he calmed down, "Do you have a life outside the warehouse Natsu? What do you do when you're not working or hanging around Fairy Tail? I know you do things with everyone there, but what else?" It'd been a while since they had a one on one talk and now seemed a good a time as any. He wasn't trying to hide his worry, but he wasn't going to force it on him either.

"I don't need a life outside my home." His response was simple.

An exasperated sigh left the man's mouth, "you…" he shook his head, "One of these days I'm going to kick you out. Go find yourself a girlfriend or something…"

"Now you sound like Mira."

And with that Makarov took his leave, giving Natsu a "Be careful." in goodbye, he still had his work to get back to after all. That boy was going to get his healing eventually, and he knew that no one around there was going to be able to give it.

Once he was out of sight, Natsu let his shoulders and chipper attitude fall. The thought of a job sounded alright, but the more he thought about it the more he knew he wasn't in any mood to work. If he wanted he could probably go a year without working, given how much he'd saved over the years, so taking a day off was no big deal. Though people immediately thought something was wrong when he did.

Damn… did he really have no life outside Fairy Tail?

He shrugged. There was always his cat at home. That seemed like enough most days. And it wasn't like he was antisocial anyway. He loved being around different people. It was just that particular week when he didn't feel like hanging around…

A long sigh escaped his mouth as he began his aimless strides, passing the trees and letting the warm breeze of summer sooth him. He would be okay again the next day. He knew he would. Sooner or later though, he was going to have to deal with that thing inside him. It didn't have a label, if he put a name to it, that would make it real and he didn't want to acknowledge it now. Not yet. It was just easier for him to ignore it. And that was saying something. Natsu, who always liked to take the hard way and loved a good challenge, take the easy route?

_It's just a feeling_. He assured himself. And though he greatly valued others' feelings, his own took a backseat.

Natsu wasn't completely aware of this himself. He figured ignoring it was all there was to it. That maybe one day all those negative thoughts and feelings would just go away if he tried to forget about them hard enough. He didn't have room for his own negativity. It was a hindrance. To what? He didn't exactly know.

He really felt like he didn't know anything about himself sometimes. But, he just supposed that was a part of life.

His disheveled and now deflated form continued on down the dirt path of the park he was on. His mind wandered and finally hardened back up when he decided he was hungry and needed to get some food. Meat, preferably. After that the day went on without another problem.

As he reached his home at twelve in the morning, he scooped his cat into his arms and collapsed onto his bed, smiling at how the animal curled into him. Once he was settled, he blocked out everything and tried to pass out, his usual nightly routine. He hoped the rest of the week would be as it always was, but what he didn't know was that a young, blonde haired girl, who was sleeping her night away on a train with puffy eyes, was about to come into his life and turn his world upside down.

* * *

**A/N:** Quick setting of the scene- this story takes place in the town you see in the new animes' first opening. the nalu fest one. so ya. anyway the first two chapters were supposed to be character intros, i hope you enjoyed them, and in the next one they'll finally meet. the idea for this was that i kind of wanted to play into the hands of what natsu and lucy could've been given the shit that's happened to them in the past. i mean we've seen a peek into their feelings concerning those events here and there, but i really just wanted to try and get deep into their issues. and yeah! thanks for reading and reviewing!


	3. Chapter 3

Lucy shifted uncomfortably in her seat. It was hard. Like, _really_ hard. She sighed, moved again, and kept wiggling around until she gave up. She'd deal. It was way, way better than flying anyhow. The girl would rather have to sit in hard seats for the rest of her life than get on an airplane. Those things scared the hell out of her. Sure they were safe or whatever, but the first time she'd ever gotten on a plane was when she was a little girl and they had experience severe turbulence. Needless to say that experience left an impression on Lucy.

She groaned for the millionth time that day, grateful her cart was mostly empty, and took out her phone. Her eyes squinted at the sudden brightness.

Zero calls and zero texts.

_Figures._

It'd already been six days since she left home, having decided upon her destination on the fourth, and it was little surprise to Lucy that her father hadn't tried to contact her. Well, in actuality, she had no clue how her dad was going to respond to her absence. On one hand she thought he wouldn't care at all, and on the other she thought he'd be enraged by her "disobedience". Once, she had tried to go into town by herself, feeling like a change of scenery that day would be refreshing, but he'd blown up about it. And as the days went on with no word from anyone, she assumed that the correct answer was the former.

"Hello Missy," and elderly man, who was clad in the attendants uniform spoke up, bringing her back to her surroundings, "is there anything I can do for you?"

Lucy looked up and almost gasped at the appearance of the man to the side of her. Both of his arms were covered in tattoos, of various things, and she could also see some budding out underneath his collar. His lip was pierced, his eyebrow, and so were both his ears. The color of his mustache and beard were also very unusual. He was unlike and old man Lucy had ever seen.

She wondered for a moment if she really _had_ been out of touch with the world outside her previous one. Was this common among old folk?

Quickly realizing she was staring at the man, Lucy put on her best smile, conditioned by the many parties she'd been to, and replied, "No I'm good. Thank you though." For a moment she hesitated, thinking it might be rude to inquire, but then continued, "Did… uh… I hope you don't mind my asking but, your tattoos…"

"Ah." the attendee made a noise that made the girl think he'd been asked about them a thousand times, "No," he smiled down at her, the corner of his eyes crinkling as he did, "they didn't hurt all that much. Well, except maybe the ones around my neck."

Lucy laughed, "I've always thought about getting one but, everyone told me that it wasn't worth the pain…" which, when she thought about it, was probably a lie her maids told her to avoid Lucy becoming a "rebel".

"Well it depends on the person Miss." He brought his hand to his vested chest, "Are you sure there isn't anything I can do for you? You've been on this train for quite some time now and haven't asked for anything…"

"O-oh no, really," she waved her hands in front of her, "I'm visiting someone in a town nearby," it wasn't a total lie, "and we've made plans to go out when I get there, but thank you. You're very kind."

"It's my pleasure." he curtsied and Lucy giggled, "If you end up changing your mind, the service cart is the one to your right."

And with one last eye crinkling smile, the man walked off.

_Well that was nice…_ Lucy idly thought to herself. It wasn't often that she'd been able to exchange a genuine conversation with someone. Most of the people she would talk to were trying to suck up to her to get into her father's favor, which was a dead end, though she did talk to some teens her age pretty often… a lot of them were extremely vain, but they were conversations nonetheless.

She brought her phone up to her face and looked at the time, sighing when she noted that there was still an hour left until she reached her destination. After a few days of panicking and wondering if she had made a wrong choice, she remembered that her family owned a large vacation home in the town called Magnolia. The last time they'd been there was when her mom was still alive, so it was the perfect place to stay for the time being. Lucy was one-hundred percent confident her father would go nowhere near it.

While her logic might've been a tad harsh, it was sound. She didn't have to be closed-mouthed anymore nor did she have to sugarcoat her feelings.

With an hour left of uncomfortable seating and a nagging fear in the back of her mind, Lucy closed her eyes and decided a short nap would be helpful.

* * *

Almost a week had passed since the encounter with douche number one and two, and Natsu was finally free of unwanted sympathies. Again, it wasn't that he didn't appreciate their worry, but he'd rather not have a reminder shoved down his throat every time someone so much as looked at him. To him it was much better to work off his negative feelings or… whatever, than have to talk about them. It wasn't his strong suit.

Since the "anniversary" had passed, and he had successfully dodged any and all contact with his friends, saying he some housework he needed to tend to, which is what he actually did, Natsu was in fairly high spirits. That morning he went down to the warehouse, received "long time no see"s even though it'd only been about two days, and gotten his favorite breakfast from Lisanna, another longtime friend of his.

Immediately after Gray had walked in they started a fist fight, but it was quickly broken up by Erza who had a headache, which was the worst state for her to be pissed off in. The two of them went to opposite sides of the building afterward. Gajeel and Levy had arrived together causing a rouse of "ooOoOoOOOOohhh~"s, Mira's heart to speed up. The old man had been in a drinking contest with Cana, who was the only person Natsu had ever seen drink so much and stay _alive_, since eleven the prior evening and had shown no sign of stopping. Once most everyone had arrived, the warehouse was it's usual bustling self.

Like he had hoped, things were as they always were.

Natsu finished his poppers, he hadn't had them in what seemed like forever, and hopped off the bar stool, deciding a job was a good idea. He _could_ just stay at the warehouse all day and fool around with everyone there but he liked working just as much.

He strode up to the wall, there was an entire wall dedicated to job postings, as well as a website but he preferred looking at the wall, and skimmed through everything there. Some jobs were from locals, some from the actual city itself, they asked for help at official businesses when they were understaffed, and some jobs required traveling, which he didn't want to do at the moment. The jobs were rotated every week and the people who didn't have their jobs accepted were notified, though that was rare. So, there was always a good variety of jobs waiting to be accepted, in turn making the old man very happy.

"Let's see…" he murmured to himself, bringing his hand under his chin, "Cook… no. Tutor? Pff hell no. Bouncer…? Maybe… Assist in climbing one of the nearby mountains…? That sounds fun but… Help find a lost dog….? I do like dogs…" Natsu's eyebrows furrowed. Choosing jobs wasn't normally hard but for some reason he couldn't fine one he really wanted to do.

He turned around and yelled over to Makarov who was sitting on top of one of the tables, "Hey old man!"

The drunken elderly jerked his head toward the teen, "WHA?!"

"You got any good jobs for me?" Sometimes he would receive jobs directly from the boss and that saved him the trouble of having to pick.

"YeAH!" the man stood up, "I goT *hic* a good oNE fER yA!" he turned down toward Cana and whispered something in her ear, causing her to spit alcohol from her mouth, "GO oUT aNd *hic* geT URSelF a gIRLf- *hic* ohh man…" he paused for a moment, looking like he was going to puke, but continued, "A _gIrLFRiEnd_!"

When he finally finished his sentence, the old man doubled over in laughter, falling straight into Cana's projectile spewing of liquor.

Natsu grimaced and shouted over their noise to the bartender, "Oi, Mira! Cut them off!"

The woman's eyebrows went up with her apologetic smile, "I already did!"

"That old man…" Natsu spat and walked away from the board, having changed his mind about the job thanks to a certain drunken bastard.

He spotted Gray over next to Juvia who was also laughing his ass off and yelled, "What the hell're you laughing at you damn stripper!"

"Nothing man, nothing." Short as his sentence was, it was full of snickering. Natsu guessed the only reason he didn't reciprocate the yelling was because Erza had already broken up a fight of theirs once and didn't want to experience _that_ twice in the same day.

"Tch. Whatever." Natsu got over it quickly. It wasn't like that kind of thing didn't happen often. People asked him all the time if he would ever get a girlfriend and though he wasn't adverse to the idea, there was just no one he saw that way. And there was no way in hell he was just going to pick up a random girl like some people he knew used to do. If he was ever going to be that way with someone it was going to have to be someone he knew, trusted, and of course, liked.

That was all.

It seemed fairly simple to him, love, and he had been told that once/if he experienced it his point of view might change, but he didn't see why people had such a hard time with it. If you love a person, and they love you then what could be so difficult about it? Love was a big deal, he knew that, but from the way he'd seen some of his friends react to it, it kinda seemed more like a bad thing than good. Romantic love that is. Anyway, he didn't have a clue and wasn't particularly looking to figure it out.

"I'm heading out then!" He called out to the people behind him who were all caught up in their own activities and exited the warehouse.

"Well…"he spoke to himself as he stepped onto the pavement, "choosing a job was a bust…"

Natsu was at a loss. He didn't have work to do, and having no girlfriend was making him a joke starter at the moment, so what was there for him to do?

He stilled on the sidewalk for a moment, combing through the possibilities in his head until it felt like steam was coming out of his ears.

_Screw it… I'll just walk around and see if anything fun happens._

The teenager began walking once again and idly thought about random things, remembering he needed to buy Happy, his cat, some more food.

* * *

Lucy stepped off the train and onto the station platform, lugging her one suitcase and purse with her as she waved goodbye to the old man she'd befriended. The girl looked around, and was surprised at how barren her immediate surroundings were. There wasn't a complete lack of people, but it was the fewest she'd ever seen in a place of transport. Again, she wondered just how out of touch she was with towns like those.

The blonde haired teen walked out of the station and onto the streets of Magnolia, nodding her head in understanding as she saw that all the people she thought were missing were already in the town.

_Must not be very tourist-y…_ she thought. Lucy couldn't really remember how the place had been back when she was younger, so she was practically new to the location. Despite the fact that everywhere she looked gave her an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. It was almost like she had somehow traveled back to her childhood days.

"If only…" Lucy sighed and then slapped both her hands on either side of her face, causing her to gain weird looks from strangers, "Alright Lucy… No more "_miss sad, lonely, wanting to go back to the good ol' days_" girl." She raised her head a little higher and exhaled deeply, settling her nerves.

"Now I gotta find someone who knows where the house is…" she laughed a dry laugh in spite of herself. Even after deciding where she was going, she remembered that she had absolutely no knowledge of the city whatsoever. Running away was much harder than they made it look in the movies.

_Okay, okay,_ she looked around for someone who looked like they lived there_, time to find a local… … …_ _… AH!_

Lucy grinned as she saw a middle aged woman attending to a flower cart outside a cute little shop just across the street. Who better to ask than someone who works in the area?

She looked both ways before crossing the road, a rule almost every mother in the world had drilled into their children, and half-jogged her way over to the woman, "Excuse me!"

"Hello!" the woman replied in earnest, "Would you care for some flowers? We're having a sale today!" She gestured to the beautiful arrangements she had spread amongst her cart.

"Um… sure!" Lucy replied thinking it would be rude asking for help and not buying anything in return, "But first I was hoping you could give me directions."

"Oh?" she looked curious now, "You must be new in town!" Her hand stuck out at lightning speed and grabbed Lucy's, "Nice to meet you! I'm Lisa and this is my shop!" And it was true. The small building behind them had a sign on it that said "LISA'S FLOWERS" on it. Simple and to the point.

Lucy, a bit shocked at the friendliness, smiled and said, "And I'm Lucy. It's nice to meet you too!"

"Mhmm!" the woman kept grinning and shaking her hand until her face made it seem like she thought she was overdoing it, "Uh-right! What was it you needed help with again?"

"I was wondering if you knew where this address is." Lucy grabbed a folded piece of paper with the house' address on it out of her bag, she scribbled it on the train, and handed it to the lady, "I need to find my way there."

"Hmmmm…" Lisa brought her finger to her nose, tapping it slightly as she thought until suddenly a shocked expression covered her face, "That place hasn't been asked about in years!" her voice had a hint of nostalgia in it, "A looooooong time ago there had been a frenzy of tourists coming to the town looking around for that land!

_Land…?_ The last Lucy had seen of it, it'd just been a house with no big "land" to speak of… Was her memory that hazy?

"Yeah yeah," Lisa nodded as she brought her attention back to Lucy, "I remember my mother talking about it. She was always complaining that those people only wanted to talk and not buy any flowers." She giggled, "But yeah! That land is a kinda far from here… Probably about ten miles I'd say. Which would be around two hours by foot… I think? Here let me write down the directions for you- one second."

Lisa scurried inside to find a paper and pen, leaving her temporarily by herself.

Lucy groaned loudly, not bothering to hide her frustration. _Great now I have to walk for two hours… and really! what is this "land" she's talking about…?_

"…. Whatever." Lucy gave up and decided to pick out what flowers she wanted to buy instead. She'd figure it out once she got there.

"Sorry for the wait!" the woman apologized and jogged out of her store, "I hope this'll help you."

Lisa gave the yellow paper to Lucy and she looked it over, "Yes thank you!" she looked up at the helpful lady, "This is a big help! Oh and," she brought the arrangement of flowers she put together to the shop owners attention, "I'll be taking these!"

"Of course, of course!" Lisa beamed and took the bouquet from Lucy, sizing it up and searching for the price, "That'll be… eight dollars!"

Lucy was shocked, "Wait… really?" Out of all the places she'd been, never had she bought flowers that cheap. Hell, she had bought _less_ for more than double that price _and_ they were of lesser quality on top of it…

"Hm? Do you find that overpriced?" she looked genuinely concerned.

"Oh! No no!" Lucy replied, "It's just… that seemed a bit… _underpriced_ to me, if you don't mind my saying."

Lisa laughed, "Well I don't know how other flower shops operate but I like to make my arrangements affordable! There are a lot of people around here who buy my flowers daily." She positioned her arm as if she were flexing and place her other hand on it, giving Lucy a grin, "My business is flourishing!"

The teen was stunned for a moment before she finally returned the smile, quickly gathering and giving the eight dollars Lisa had charged her.

"Well then, I'm off. Thank you for your help!" she waved to the woman and began to walk away.

"It was no problem! Let me know if you need anything again, Miss Lucy!" Lisa called after her, waving enthusiastically.

Lucy laughed and turned forward, feeling like a two hour walk wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

Natsu sighed at his current situation…

_How the hell did you end up like this…? You just had to go and follow that fuckin stray dog didn't you. You just HAD TO._

He was pissed. The guy had already decided not to work that day and yet as soon as he spotted the stray and was reminded of that job posting, he went after it. He didn't even know if that damn dog was the one the job was talking about. He sighed again, and grimaced.

Currently, he was stuck in some random house' window, a house he thought the dog had gone into but was apparently wrong, and was starting to get really thirsty... The thing felt like it hadn't been opened in a decade and when he finally lifted it up some he thought it was enough room for him to fit through. When he stuck his head in it seemed like he was going to make it but, he was wrong yet again.

Natsu had resigned to the fact he was going to be stuck there forever. The house he was half in, which was huge by the way, was a few minutes out of the towns' limits and was well hidden by the ton of trees surrounding it. He didn't even know the place existed until today and if he didn't know any better he would've thought the place was haunted.

"Oh man… I'll never get to eat anything spicy ever again…" he groaned and hung his head, not even wincing when it hit the floor.

Natsu stayed like that for thirty minutes until he heard a bark sound from right in front of him. His head snapped upward and saw the dog a few feet from him, "You _bastard_! You're just messing with me now aren't you?!"

The dog, which seemed to be a Great Dane puppy now that he saw it up close and _not_ the dog that was on the poster, barked again then laid down, seemingly teasing him.

"That's it! Just you wait! I'm getting out of this damn window and coming for your ass!" he grunted and continued making a series of odd noises, unknowing that he was about to have more company.

* * *

Lucy had been wrong. So. _Wrong_.

A two hour walk was hell.

Pure literal hell, especially since it was the middle of summer. It was like walking through the devils backyard.

"Oh.. my _god_.." she panted and slid her shirt off, leaving her in only shorts and a tank top. She didn't care. It was too hot to worry about how she looked and thankfully she was covered in shade due to the abundance of trees around. A sunburn was the last thing she wanted.

The girl stopped on the side of the dirt road, having been on it for six minutes since she left the towns limits, and set her bag and suitcase down, plopping herself next to them.

_Well, I see what that woman meant by land at least… _

A few minutes into beginning on the road she was on, she spotted a small wooden sign that "Heartfilia Home", and everything she forgot had come back to her. The house was built on a little more than 2 acres, surrounded by nothing but land, forest and a nearby lake. She remembered it was meant to be a gift for one of her mom's birthdays. Layla had always gone on and on about wanting to own a small piece of land she could do whatever she wanted with. It had made her mother ecstatic and the first thing she did was plant her very own garden.

Lucy smiled fondly at the memory.

Of course they didn't live there year round, so they had to hire a live in house sitter while they were gone. She didn't expect them to still be there considering how her father banned all talk of the place.

Fanning herself with her hand, Lucy stood back up and grabbed her belongings, knowing it was bad to slow down for too long.

_Alright! A little farther to go! _

She toughened up and started her walk again. A few more minutes passed and Lucy had started to panic at how thick the trees were getting until she saw they suddenly thinned out a bit. It was confusing to her until she came upon the beginnings of an iron gate, one she remembered.

Lucy sprinted forward until she was able to see the gates' entrance, "YES!" she cheered and jumped into the air, "I FOUND IT!"

The girl donned a proud grin and went to open it. Her smile disappeared then, "Wha..?"

She tried pushing it open again but the thing wouldn't budge, "Oh come on…" It looked like it was rusted shut.

"Damn it…" Lucy cursed under her breath as she positioned herself to hop over it, the top only came up to her waist after all, "Okay years and years of gymnastics, don't fail me now." And with a single jump she cleared the gate.

"Alright!" she pat herself on the shoulder and turned to get her things, only she had no idea that her shirt had hooked onto one of the gates rounded spikes and as she turned, the shirt almost ripped in completely in half from the back.

"?_?_" Lucy made a confused noise, one she hadn't ever heard herself make, and reached toward her back, feeling around, "Oh great! Just great!" She was already limited on clothing options and that was her favorite undershirt.

She huffed as if she were an angry bull and reached over to grab her stuff, so not wanting to care about her back and bra strap being exposed. There wasn't anyone around to see her anyway. Once she got everything over to her side, she began walking the almost maze like path to the house, until she finally reached the front. Lucy might've cried a little at the sight.

The house was just as gorgeous as she remembered. It was completely wooden on the outside and it _would_ be called a cabin if it weren't so big. It wasn't anywhere near the size of the house back where her dad was but she knew by normal standards it was still fairly huge. One section of the left side of the home was completely made up of windows from top to bottom, one thing she absolutely loved as a child. It was a two story house and with an extremely open layout one the first floor, not so much like where the bedrooms were on the second. Also the kitchen had been tailored, to the very last detail, around her mother. She loved to cook and in result of that her father, with the help of professionals , had created an amazing space for her.

Lucy couldn't help but miss the way her father used to be…

Well, anyway, it was a beyond gorgeous home, even now with its unkempt condition.

Lucy walked up the steps to the house and came upon its lilac door, it had been painted that color at her child self's request, and reached to the top of it, remembering her mother had kept a spare key there. Her hand searched for it, feeling around, until she came upon it. It was covered in rust, no doubt from the countless times it must've rained over the years.

"Okay…" she mumbled to herself and stuck the key in the lock, turning it as soon as she did.

With little effort the door unlocked, and opened with a creak.

She was about to go into a fit of tears as she walked in but didn't have the time to do so as she immediately heard a dog barking and the sound of a man's voice yelling unintelligible words.

_Wait someone didn't buy the house did they?! _Lucy panicked and remembered she'd forgotten to ask the flower lady what she meant when people were asking about the house.

_Oh noo oh no… what do I do…?_ Her body was stuck in a weird position as she thought about her options, ultimately deciding there was no harm in telling the person why she was there… right?

Without much of her brain functioning, she continued forward until she reached the vastly open living room, just the same as she'd remembered. Her eyes scanned for the person but he was nowhere in sight.

_SHIT… what if he knows I'm here and thinks I'm and intruder!? I'm no intruder! _The teen began to sweat, forgetting that calling out to the guy was the best thing she could do.

"Ha! I got you, you damn mutt!" the male's voice shouted and Lucy snapped at the name calling.

"HEY! I know you might think I'm a thief but I'm not a mutt! How dare you!" she shouted back and didn't register the sound of speedy footsteps coming closer and closer to her until she rounded the corner and collided harshly with the name calling man.

* * *

**A/N: **I know I said this took place in the town from the ED but.. whoops. just think of it as a different version of magnolia i guess... (: anyway ya. I hope you enjoyed this one! It was much longer than the first two, which I didn't expect tbh. I also said they would meet in this one, and they did, but next time they'll interact. Promise. Thanks for the reading! I appreciate the reviews a lot!


	4. Chapter 4

It took Lucy 3.5564 seconds to realize it wasn't a wall that she'd run into, but an actual person. A very heavy, seemingly muscular, pink haired(?), person, who, she ought to mention, was now placed directly on top of her. If it weren't for the dog now licking her face, Lucy would've wished to die right then and there, not wanting to face the wrath of the new home owner, but thanks to the little thing she got her mind right and tried to push the guy off.

_Ugh… at least… help out a little…_ she thought as she felt herself doing all the work trying to untangle their bodies. _What? Is the guy unconscious or something?!_

After a few attempts she finally succeeded in getting him off and rolling him onto his back. It seemed what she'd thought was exactly the case.

"Come on… _really?!_" she sat up and examined the man further, noticing that a part of his forehead was beginning to redden. The teen guessed that the loud noise she heard when they fell was him hitting his head.

"Great…" she put her hands over her face and leaned forward, sitting like that for a solid minute, "I can't just _leave_ now! He's gonna wake up and then what? I can't just bail and hope he forgets about this. What if he reports a blonde home intruder? What if they pick me up on the street?-oh god why is this happening?" she groaned, really, really regretting not asking Lisa for more information.

"Woof!"

Lucy peeked from in between her fingers at the dog in front of her, noting it was probably a Great Dane and slightly malnourished. Slowly, she reached forward to pet the dog, remembering you're supposed to go from under the chin, and scratched its head for a moment, liking the way it leaned into her hand. When she stopped, the black puppy crossed the distance between them and jumped into her lap, making the girl momentarily forget that she was in an unfavorable situation. "You're pretty cute…" she quietly giggled and rubbed the pups head.

"You change moods really quickly y'know."

Lucy heard the man beside her speak and she couldn't help but let a small scream leave her throat, "You! I thought you were unconscious! Wh-! Were you faking it?!" She stood up, setting the puppy down properly first, and faced the teen, she now realized he was probably her age, shouting, "Why the hell would you fake being knocked out?! Don't you know you're not supposed to do that?! I was about to tear my hair ou-!"

"Whoa hold on, I wasn't faking it! I just happened to wake up again when you were talkin'." The man replied and also stood up, irritating Lucy further now that he was taller than her, "And I won't report you or anything. I don't think the cops would just go around pickin' up blonde chicks for alleged home intrusion. This isn't even my house…"

Lucy was at a loss even when there were a million things she wanted to say… she just stared open mouthed and blank at the teen in front of her.

"Haha! But you sure did scare me!" he cracked a grin and rubbed his head, "I wasn't expecting anyone to show up in this old place. Seemed pretty abandoned to me."

The dog, who she guessed was feeling left out of the conversation, barked and ran up to Natsu, "AH!" he yelled, "That's right you're the reason I got stuck here in the first place!" he went to grab the puppy, but it easily dodged and began jumping back and forth, messing with the man trying to capture him.

Lucy didn't know whether to get mad, laugh, or beat up the pink haired guy in front of her but she settled for laughing with a bit of frustration mixed in, "Okay so- hold on, if this isn't your house, and by the way it's mine, then what are you doing here?" she folded her arms against her chest, a defensive pose she didn't really mean to strike, and questioned him.

"Well…" he stopped for a moment and looked at Lucy, probably gauging her anger/frustration, "uh, can I get your name first? I'm Natsu." He stuck his hand out and waited for her to take it if she wanted to.

_It's an innocent enough request,_ she thought to herself as she eyed his extended arm.

"I'm Lucy." She spoke, grabbing his hand when she decided he seemed like an decent enough person, and then asked him once again, "So? What is it you're doing here?"

"Lucy huh…" he put a hand under his chin and mumbled, "Have I ever known any Luc-"

"Answer the question! …p-please." She cut him off with a voice that almost spewed venom, but tried her best to tolerate the man's pace.

"Oh sorry, sorry." He held his hands up and was almost sweating at the tone of her voice, "I was just takin' a walk earlier, minding my own business when I saw this dog," he pointed to the pup who was still wagging his tail, "who I thought was on a missing poster, so I start chasin' it and it led me here. I thought it got into this house, still don't know how it did, and when I couldn't find an entrance I just tried gettin' in through the window, then I got stuck, which sucked- I thought I was going to be there forever, then I got out after I saw the dog _did_ get in here and then I started running after the thing for a while. That's when I heard you all of a sudden shouting somethin' like "How dare you!" and the rest just happened."

Natsu didn't look at all winded by that long sentence and as Lucy was still trying to process all the information he spoke again, "Was that a good explanation? Hope you're not mad or anything. I wasn't trying to break in- well, technically I did break in, but that's wasn't my intention, or- wait hold on let me get this straight in my head…"

While the teen in front of her put on a genuine concerned expression, Lucy could yet again only bring herself to laugh, "It's fine, it's fine. I was also borderline an intruder, so I get what you're saying." She smiled courteously and walked past him to go back to where she dropped her bags in a panic, forgetting that her shirt was practically ripped in half from the back.

"Ah." Natsu saw this and was about to speak up when he remembered all the times he'd been hit over the head for being "insensitive". He always thought the person would want to know when something was wrong or whatever so he pointed it out but, _apparently_ that was the wrong thing to do so he kept his mouth shut and averted his eyes, trying to stifle a laugh.

"Um, but since this is my house, and you're a bit of a stranger…" she looked back at him as she grabbed her things but stopped mid-sentence when she saw his mouth bubbled up with air as if he were going to crack up. "What? What's so funny?" Lucy was honestly concerned about this.

"It's nothin'." He released the air in his mouth carefully and continued, "Anyways, you're right! I'm a stranger in your house so I should probably go."

Natsu made a move to leave, but Lucy stepped in front of him, "No… You're going to tell me what's so funny." The girl hated it when she was kept from things, especially things that were apparently funny.

"U-umm…" he really didn't want to say it and then suffer the wrath of this girl. From what he'd seen so far, it looked like she could get pretty angry… like _Erza_ level angry.

"Tell me." Her brown eyes stared into his and for a moment Natsu felt like he could get seriously lost in them, but they moved from his when the puppy began licking her leg, "Oh I'm sorry…" she bent down and picked the little thing up, "Was I ignoring you?" Lucy smiled and spoke in that special voice people have for animals, "This isn't your dog right?"

"Nah. I thought he was a lost dog, there was a job posting for one, but he doesn't fit the picture, or breed…"

"Job posting…?" she questioned but decided that could go unanswered, "More importantly, you still haven't told me what's so funny." She looked back up at him with an almost pouty face, expecting an answer this time.

"You really want to know?" he sighed, "I'll tell you but you have to promise not to hit me."

"Why would I hit you?" she questioned.

"Just… whatever. It's your shirt. It's all ripped up from behind." He slightly braced himself for a beating but instead he was given a rapidly reddening face from the girl.

"C-close your eyes!" she set the dog down and reached around to her back to hold the shirt together.

"Wha-"

"Just close them!" she insisted and he did as told.

Once he shut them he relied on his ears to tell him what was going on, "I've already seen it y'know. You don't have to be embarrassed."

"I told you to shut them so I could change my shirt, idiot!" she yelled and went to ransacking her suitcase.

"Whoa. Name calling." He wanted to laugh when she told him to shut it.

_She's kinda weird…_ he thought to himself. _Not a bad weird though._

"Okay you can open them now."

Natsu noted her voice was calmer and opened his eyes to see she was now wearing a… blazer?

"BUAHAHAHHHA!" he busted out in laughter at her appearance, "What is that?!"

"Sh-shut up!" she covered her arms over herself defensively, "This was the first thing I came across that was for my upper body! It's temporary!"

"I've just never seen a teenager wear a blazer before, oh man." he continued his boisterous laughter.

"Yeah, this coming from a guy wearing a scarf in the middle of summer!"

"Hey! Don't insult the scarf!"

"Then don't insult my temporary choice of clothing!"

"I wasn't insulting it! I just said I'd never seen a person my age wear one!"

"How do you know I'm your age, huh? I could be twenty-five!"

"You sure don't look twenty-five! What's it matter anyway?!"

"Ugh fine! I'll change again but be prepared to shut your eyes longer this time!"

"You don't have to change! I just sai-"

"Just do it!"

And he did.

_What hell?! Why am I just doing what she says?! _

A full minute passed and Lucy finally told him to open his eyes. This time she was wearing another undershirt but its color was a light purple. For some reason, Natsu was a little disappointed.

"There." Lucy smiled at her choice, content with her current state of dress, "Now, where were we?"

"I don't know. We were just yelling about your clothes…" Natsu deadpanned.

"No, no," she corrected him, "about the dog."

"Oh right." Natsu had almost forgotten all about the pup, "Well I don't know what to do with him… it doesn't have a collar so I don't know if he belongs to anyone."

"Hmm…" Lucy, before considering anything any further, examined the dog to see if it was a male or female and found he was the former. "He looks pretty skinny too… You can't keep him until you see if he has a home?" she looked up at Natsu with serious concern.

"I could but I have a cat at home and I don't know how he'd react…" He wanted to help the little guy out despite their earlier interactions, but he knew Happy wasn't particularly welcoming to dogs. "Why don't you keep him? I really doubt he has a home anyway with the way he looks."

"Me?"

"Well yeah you. You don't see anyone else around here do you?"

Lucy, a bit ticked off by that reply, said, "I guess, but I just arrived in this town… I mean, I don't have anything he'd need."

She looked down at the dog, considering the consequences and responsibilities owning a dog had, but was instantly taken in by his little puppy eyes, "Oh but who could resist such a cute puppy!" Lucy bent down to pick him up, despite his being a Great Dane he was fairly light at the moment, and moved her face close to his, "Don't you worry about a thing, I'll make sure you have everything you need."

"That was easy…" Natsu grinned at the sight in front of him. He always liked when people treated animals with love. People who did the opposite saw no mercy from the man.

"Okay, then that settles that. He most likely came in from the dog door." She remembered that her father had put one in for the possibility of them getting a dog, but it never happened, "I'll have to close that off for the time being I guess."

"Looks like you have your work cut out for you." Natsu looked around the house, which was in desperate need of attention, and decided to extend his hand in help, "If you need anything you can ask me!" he wore a toothy grin on his face, "I heard you say you're new in town, and I have no idea why you'd have this huge a house, but I kinda got you into this, owning the dog I mean, so I can at least help out."

Lucy hesitated for a moment, knowing that if she accepted his help things about her were bound to come out, but for once she didn't want to care about it. She knew rich people weren't always so accepted by everyone, she experienced that firsthand, but technically she wasn't rich anymore. That was right! She didn't have ties to that anymore so what was the harm?

"Alright… Natsu." She smiled and was completely unaware of the slight blush on her cheeks.

Since he was already grinning, he grinned harder in response and stuck his hand out for what she guessed as a high-five. The girl quickly slapped his hand with hers and then went back to business, if that's what it was, "First things first!" Lucy set her fists on her hips and wore a stern expression, "I need to unpack so," Natsu couldn't help but look at her _one_ suitcase, "um, I'll need help later on with where to find things but I think I can manage that. You can leave if you want. I'm just going to be around here for a while." Lucy desperately tried not to make it awkward, considering how they met it only made parting that much weirder.

"Okay cool." Natsu shrugged, not noticing her efforts to make the air comfortable, mostly because he was already comfy around her, "Let me give you my number."

Lucy blushed, completely aware of it this time, _Oh my god… this is the time I've ever gotten a boys number..._ The girl knew she was overthinking it but she couldn't make the heat on her face go away.

"Sure, do you need mine?" she handed her phone over to him.

"Of course!" he smiled and gave her his own. Lucy wanted to laugh at how beat up it was, not like she was belittling him, but because even if she hadn't known him that long, it seemed very like him.

Quickly, she inserted her number and gave it back to him at the same time he was done, "If I don't answer for some reason you can ask around for a place called Fairy Tail. And if I'm not there then just tell the bartender, her name's Mira, to tell me you came."

"Fairy… _Tale_…? Like the… stories?" she asked, dumbfounded.

"T-a-i-l, like a dogs tail." He corrected her.

"Do… do fairies have tails?" her confusion was getting worse.

"Who knows?" he shrugged, "Anyway, I think that's it?"

"O-oh yeah, well I'll be seeing you!" she grinned, already not wanting to call him for a few days out of embarrassment.

Lucy walked over with him to the door that had been left open this whole time, and they said their goodbyes, "See you later!" the guy waved to her as he walked down the steps and disappeared into the houses' maze like path.

The girl waited until she knew he was actually gone, and shut the door, sliding onto the floor once she did. Her hands went to hide her blushing face; it was still burning from embarrassment. That was the first real time she'd ever talked to someone her age without a filter and it just _had_ to go like _that_. She sighed and got up, sliding her shoes off and tossing them into the corner of the wall and door.

"Alright! Calm down Lucy!" she walked into the living room where the puppy had fallen asleep, and grabbed her bags, "You can do this! Just put on good airs from now on. It's not like you expected things to go super smoothly anyway. There are always second chances. Let's get moving!" she laughed a triumphant laugh and turned around to see Natsu standing in the hallway, looking sorry.

"U-Umm… excuse me…" he broke out in a sweat as he saw her body practically begin to flame, "I think I dropped my wallet some…where…"

Lucy, deciding that good airs didn't matter around this particular person anymore, exploded, "SO YOU JUST LET YOURSELF IN?!"

* * *

Four hours passed since she'd landed her first hit on Natsu, sending him on his way, and it would be a lie if she said she didn't regret it a bit. While it wasn't right for him to just waltz right back into her house, it probably wasn't right for her to hit someone she barely knew. He kinda deserved it, but even so Lucy couldn't help but feel a bit bad for doing what she did. And that's why she had decided to treat him to dinner.

Lucy sighed_, If he even wants to talk to me again…_

The girl was far into the towns limits now. After making sure the puppy couldn't get out of the house, and after she'd fed him with some food from a little corner store close to her home, she decided to go back into the city for a while before it got dark to get some things she knew she needed. Because Lord KNEW she wasn't going to sleep in a pitch black house. And now that she was thinking about it, there were probably a lot of things she'd have to place special orders for…

_Damn it. Why did dad have to build such a fancy house…?_

A groan left her mouth as she followed the directions she'd been given by a local to find her way to Fairy Tail. That exchange had been rather odd when she thought about it. The guy had even given her a "good luck with that" when they parted, making her a little wary of the place.

She was still wondering if fairies even had tails?

After a few more minutes, she finally found the building.

_It's a… warehouse? _

She stared at the front of it, seeing there was a large sort of garage door on the front, and then a set of double doors on its left, for easier access she guessed. The building itself was huge, larger than her house, she had taken to calling it _her_ house, though she supposed that wasn't unusual and at the very top there was a huge sign that read "Fairy Tail". There was also a large amount of noise coming from the inside and if she didn't know any better she'd say there was a fight going on. Well actually, she didn't know anything about that place, so there very well _could_ be a fight happening.

Just as her hesitation was about to get the better of her, an elderly man, who was very short, spoke up, "Hello little missy!" Lucy jumped, making the old man laugh, "You need something inside? Don't worry, there's nothing awful going on in there. They may sound like a lot of hooligans but they're all very nice."

"Oh I don't really-"

"Nonsense! I know when someone's hiding something, and I can tell you want to go on in." He grinned and extended a hand toward the door, "Shall we…?" he trailed off as if asking for a name.

"Ah, I'm Lucy."

He nodded with a knowing expression on his face, one Lucy found a little troublesome, like he knew something she didn't, "Well! Shall we, Lucy?" Makarov walked toward the door, and held it open for her.

With a gulp, and a tightened grip around her bag's strap, Lucy strode in, almost floored by what she saw.

If she had to explain it, it looked like the happiest place she'd ever seen.

There were people dancing like drunken fools, others were reading and chatting about important things it seemed, some were singing on a stage(?) there was a stage, and the rest of them were either eating with what looked like friends and just hanging around. Oh and there _was_ one fight going on, she'd been right about that.

Makarov observed her expression, pleased with how she reacted.

"You like the place?" he asked despite the obvious answer plastered on her face.

Lucy scoffed slightly, "I love it…" she replied, forgetting she was talking to a stranger.

"Well as the current owner it makes me very happy to hear that."

"WHA-What?!" Lucy turned to him in surprise, blabbing out a jumble of proper greetings.

Makarov grinned mischievously; teasing beautiful girls had been a strong suit of his ever since he was a teenager himself. "No worries little lady. You're here for Natsu right?"

She raised her eyebrow at the question, wondering how he knew-Lucy mentally gasped. _HE TOLD THEM ABOUT ME. OH MY GOD WHAT ALL DID HE MENTION. DID HE SAY I WAS A WEIRDO THAT TALKS TO HERSELF? I'M GOING TO HIT HIM SO MUCH HARDER NEXT TIME. NO, I'M GOING TO KICK HIM._

_Ah, she's a funny one._ The old man laughed inwardly as he saw the play of emotions on her face, "Anyway, Natsu right? Just wait on over at the bar and when he pops up I'll send him over."

"Oh wait, but I really don't have much tim-"

"Go on, go on!" he smiled and pushed her in the direction of the bar. Lucy stumbled, but caught her balance, unintentionally gaining the attention of some strangers.

She walked past all the tables, noticing that more and more people were looking at her, and once she got close enough she practically ran to an open seat at the counter. The girl guessed it was normal that newcomers were bound to get curious attention, they all seemed like they knew each other pretty well. Still, she wondered if no one had told them staring made people uncomfortable…

Lucy let the breath she was holding out, and set her elbows up on the bar. For a moment, she relaxed to the sound of chatter and laughter coming from the crowd until a white haired woman eagerly appeared before her.

"Hi! Can I get you anything?" The bartender asked, looking very, very excited.

"Some water's fine. Thank you." She unintentionally ordered quite plainly.

"Mhm, anything else?" The woman replied, still looking eager.

"No, that's good." She smiled and looked directly at her this time, a little awed by how gorgeous she was.

"Aw, are you sure?"

"Um-"

"Because there's plenty other-"

"Mira! You're making her uncomfortable!" another white haired girl, who seemed younger, scolded her.

"No it's fine!" Lucy mediated, "I might have plans in a little bit so I'm saving my appetite for then."

"Oh?" The woman called Mira made an excited noise that came with a sparkle in her eye, "A date perhaps?"

"N-No… more like I owe someone something…"

"Is that person here?" She questioned, "If you're waiting I can call them over."

"Well I don't know if he's here…" Lucy turned and scanned the building, not sighting pink hair.

"May I ask who it is?" Lisanna, who was now just as equally curious as Mira, asked.

"His name's Natsu. Pink hair, about this tall." She held her hand up in demonstration and almost shrunk into herself when she saw their expressions.

"Natsu?!" both the girls gasped in unison and grinned like they just witnessed a miracle.

Mira began jumping in place and Lisanna just looked plain excited, "GUYS!" The bartender called out to the crowd in the warehouse, "A PRETTY GIRL IS HERE TO SEE NATSU!"

There were a few moments of silence and then a roar of cheers unlike anything Lucy had ever heard erupted amongst them. People were throwing their pints into the air and yelling things like "finally!" and "wow took him long enough!"

Lucy wanted to crawl into the nearest hole.

And she was about to until she heard a bang sound on the counter next to her.

"What the hell Mira?!" A voice she recognized shouted in embarrassment at the bartender.

"Whaaat? I just got excited." She grinned and looked back toward Lucy, "So Lucy's your name huh? Natsu had told us about an encounter he had earlier, but I wanted to see if it really was you." She stuck her hand out and grabbed Lucy's gently despite her bubbly behavior, "I'm Mira! I'll get your water now so just a second."

"I'm Lisanna by the way." The younger girl grinned, "Any friend of Natsu's is a friend of ours. Please enjoy your time here!" After that she ran after her sister, an even bigger grin forming on her face.

"Damn it. All these people get excited over the smallest thing." Natsu sat down on the stool next to her, and Lucy for some reason thought he was most likely just as easily excited as they were.

She stayed quiet for a moment, not really knowing how to start a conversation with him after what happened that afternoon but he saved her the trouble, "Man! I thought you didn't want to talk to me after that." He grinned and moved to face her, "Talk about scary. That was almost as scary as when Erza gets mad."

"About that… sorry." She apologized, "I shouldn't have hit you like that, especially when we don't know each other that well."

"Does that matter?" he questioned, "Whether you know someone or not when they deserved to be hit it seems alright to me." Natsu finished simply.

Lucy could only shake her head in exasperation, "It's called _manners_."

"I guess…" he trailed off and adjusted his scarf; she still couldn't believe he wore it in the middle of summer, "Anyway, what's up? Did you need something?" his left eyebrow went up.

"Well since I came to apologize, which was a waste I guess, I was going to see if I could make it up to you by treating you to dinner but…" she looked around at the crowd and their smiling faces, "I guess you'd be more content staying with your friends."

Lucy hopped off the stool, forgetting she'd ordered water, "I'll just be going then." She smiled, "I have to get back before its dark anyway and there are still some things I need to get. So see you."

But before she could walk off another person made their way into the conversation, "What's this I hear about a pretty girl coming to see this doofus?"

A man, who was probably the same age as Natsu, appeared from behind her and stared at the blonde curiously, "You're here to see this idiot? Did he break something of yours?"

"Like hell I broke something!" Natsu retorted and stood up like he was about to fight the black haired man, unintentionally invading Lucy's personal space.

"Well it wouldn't be unusual if you did." He snickered, "It happens all the time, unlike this." The teen gestured to Lucy.

"Gray, Natsu, you're being rude." A red haired woman with a seemingly cool demeanor spoke up this time and sent visual shivers down both of the boys' bodies.

"Ye-yeah sorry." Gray stuttered and Lucy didn't know whether to be concerned or laugh at how different he was acting, "I'm Gray, nice to meet you."

She shook the man's hand and looked over to the woman who scolded him, and for maybe the sixth time that day she was at a loss for words.

Armor. She was wearing _leather_ _armor_.

If you saw it from a little ways away, it would look like a regular, biker-ish, leather ensemble, but no. What Lucy was seeing was full on armor.

_Where the hell am I..?_

"I'm Erza." The woman smiled, and Lucy couldn't help but admire the air about her. "Sorry for their behavior. I'll have to teach them another lesson later." She flipped her bangs out of her face and gave a cold stare two the boys, quickly changing Lucy's admiration to fear.

"It's fine… really."

"And your name is?" Erza asked curiously.

"Right, I'm-"

"She's Lucy!" Natsu grinned and beat her to the punch.

"Lucy! I've got your water!" Mira rushed out of the kitchen, and set a glass down on the counter, "Sorry it took so long! There was a bit of an accident in the back." It was a total lie. She'd just spent the last few minutes gushing about how nice it would be if Natsu got a girlfriend.

"Oh yeah, sorry I already forgot about it." Lucy smiled, a bit embarrassed, and reached into her purse intending to pay, "How much?"

"Don't worry about it!" Mira replied and grabbed a cloth from her aprons pocket, beginning to clean the counter, "We don't charge for water and even if we did this is your first time here, I would've covered it for you."

Lucy really felt like she was being swept into a tornado of kindness every time the white haired woman spoke.

She nodded with a smile and took a sip of her water, choking on it when Erza spoke again, "So, are you here for a date with Natsu?"

The question was innocent but Lucy, who overreacted at times, tried her best to swallow her water and replied, "No! I was just here to apologize to him for something!"

"Apologize?" The woman questioned suspiciously, "Natsu… what did you do?"

"He really didn't do anything! It was me. I just felt bad for something and figured I needed to say I was sorry."

Gray chuckled, "What'd you do? Give him a good smack or what?"

"Yeah." Natsu spoke this time, "She hit me earlier for walking back into her house without permission and hearin' her talk to hersel-!" his sentence was cut short when Lucy turned and landed a fist on his shoulder.

"What are you telling them _that_ for!" she fumed at his decision in telling them she talked to herself, "Just saying I hit you would've been fine!"

"Okay, okay…" Natsu rubbed his shoulder, it didn't really hurt all that much to be honest, and wore the expression of a scolded puppy.

"You really need to work on your manners. And _another _thing…" Lucy went off on a scolding tangent while Gray and Erza looked on curiously.

The two of them looked at one another, and then back at how their longtime friend was responding to this new person. Natsu didn't really make new friends. Sure he was friendly with a lot of people, but they hardly ever came into the warehouse looking for him and from the way they were talking you wouldn't be able to guess they'd only met earlier that day.

"How did you two meet?" Erza asked, a bit annoyed that Natsu had walked into a person's house of his own permission, but she'd touch on that later.

"It's a real funny story." Natsu replied as he and Lucy returned their attention to the two, "I got stuck in in window in this old house I thought was abandoned, I was chasing a dog, which she's keepin' by the way, and then I got out and started to chase it some more but then I heard her yelling at me all of a sudden and then we ran into each other. I passed out for like a minute and she got angry at me for pretending to be knocked out, which I wasn't," he looked at Lucy as if to prove his point further, "and then I got up and noticed her shirt was ripped in half from the ba-" he dodged another hit from Lucy, "from the back and then she got all embarrassed and had me close my eyes so she could change but get this!" he started laughing, "Of all things she put on a _blazer_! Oh man it's still funny."

"Is not!"

"And then we had to figure out what to do with the dog but she's a sucker for dogs apparently. Then we exchanged numbers and I told her to give a call or show up here if she needed anything. I left after that but I couldn't find my wallet and figured that maybe I left it in her house so I let myself back in but I overheard her talkin' to herself and that's when she hit me and kicked me out."

"…" both Erza and Gray didn't know how to respond.

_Great… my reputation that didn't even begin is ruined…_ Lucy, who had slowly lowered her head in shame onto the counter, thought.

"Well… that's quite the first meeting." Erza spoke as soon as she came up with a response.

"Yeah man," Gray was stifling his laughter, "good job hitting him though. Not many people do that." He pat Lucy on her back.

"Yeah… right."

Lucy couldn't erase the sarcasm in her voice as she looked at her watch, noting she was running out of time, "It was nice meeting you all, but I really have to go."

"So soon?" Erza asked with a hint of disappointment.

"Yeah. I'm staying pretty far away and I need to get bulbs or I'm going to be sleeping in pitch blackness."

"Is that a bad thing?" Natsu questioned.

"For me, yes." Lucy deadpanned, and looked at him with tiredness in her eyes, that man wasn't good for her energy.

"Alright, we won't keep you if you have things to do. But Natsu," she gained his attention, "you should accompany her."

"Wha-"

"You're new to town, yes?" The red haired woman cut her off, "It wouldn't hurt to have someone who knows the area well to help out."

"S'cool with me. I already offered to show her around earlier."

"Oh? You did something so bold?" Gray teased.

"Shut up."

"I'm goo-" Lucy tried to refuse but was cut off.

"Nonsense. You're new, it's getting dark, and Natsu is very capable. I won't stand for you going alone." Her voice had no waver and Lucy could tell she wasn't going to get anywhere arguing the point.

"Alright then." She finished her water in a few gulps, and hitched her bag around her shoulder. "I don't have much time so we need to go now if I'm getting back before dark."

Lucy smiled at Natsu's friends, "It was nice meeting you guys!"

"Likewise." Erza replied and Gray only grinned and waved.

She began to walk off and tried her best to ignore all the taunts and teasing they were getting from the people around them. Most were just congratulating Natsu on his date and Lucy didn't have the time, or energy to correct all hundred something of them.

Once they stepped out into the evening summer air, Lucy sighed and brushed her hair out of her face, "You're friends really are… spirited." It wasn't an insult. Lucy was just tired. "Is there some special event going on today or…?"

"Pff if you think that's spirited you've got another thing coming. This is a _normal_ day." He laughed and began walking across the street, looking for traffic first.

"That was _normal_?!" she asked in awe as she followed him.

"Yup. That's how most nights go. It usual dies down a little past twelve." Natsu continued walking, leading her past all types of different stores, "You said you needed bulbs right?"

"Yes." She said business like, "Bulbs and dog food for now. I don't have time to get much else." Her hand came up to her forehead and rubbed, "That path to the house doesn't have any lights, or at least I didn't see any, and it was hard enough to find it in the first place, so I don't even want to imagine trying to do that again with no light."

"What is that house anyway? You said you're new in town, and I believe you since I haven't seen you around here before, but how'd you get it?" he was curious.

"Er-uh… it's a long story…" Lucy dodged the question, but that only made Natsu want to know even more.

"Okay now I really want to know." He laughed and crossed his arms over his chest, "But if you don't wanna talk about it that's fine."

"Thanks." She felt a little bad for shutting his question down, but she _really_ didn't want to say anything, at least not at the moment.

"So… dinner huh?" he teased, "You were gonna apologize with dinner?"

Lucy's eyebrow twitched at his tone, "_Yes_. Do you have a problem with that? It's not like you deserved an apology anyway."

Natsu chuckled, "Then why'd you apologize?"

"Sh-shut up. It felt like the right thing to do alright?" she blushed in embarrassment.

"Hey I'm not complaining. Buying me food is one of the easiest ways to get on my good side." He rubbed his stomach for emphasis and Lucy laughed.

Natsu stopped talking for a moment, letting her say whatever she wanted, and decided to focus on the girl next to him. She was pretty. That was obvious. No, if he were going to be honest, she was gorgeous. Her hair was a soft blonde, almost like morning sunlight, and her eyes, which he already decided he liked, were this deep brown color that reminded him of hot chocolate. Her nose was button like, and overall she just seemed very… girly? If that was the right word. It was a little creepy to him how he already wouldn't mind seeing her again tomorrow.

Natsu's mind went back to the conversation just in time for him to hear her next question, "Did you want dinner? I wouldn't mind paying. I'm actually really hungry…"

He laughed at her expression, "You're kinda weird."

"WHA-?" her head whipped upward to look at him, "_I'm_ the weird one?! You're the one who wears a scarf in the middle of summer!"

"Hey!" he grabbed his scarf protectively, "I told you not to insult the scarf!"

"I'm not _insulting_ it. It's just weird to wear something meant for winter in the summer!"

"Says the person who's only a teenager and wears blazers."

"You-just-we've already been over this!"

"Okay, okay fine." He conceded. "Food's this way."

Natsu pointed to a city square that was crawling with people, "It's my favorite place besides the warehouse to eat!" he grinned and tugged her toward the crowd

Lucy let herself be dragged along, not able to keep up with his pace in conversations, "It has to be quick! I need to get ba-"

"I know! It's fine even if we stay too long. I won't let ya walk home alone in the dark, so don't worry!" he looked back at her and gave that toothy grin she'd only seen once earlier.

_ Geez… _The teen sighed and planned on holding him to his word.

It'd been a long day. A loooooooong day. Quite possibly the longest day she'd ever experienced. She even got a dog… and that was one of the _last_ things she expected to happen. The girl was tired, but there was something about everything that happened that gave her a different kind of energy. She couldn't put her finger on it. New people had been introduced to her, people she could see herself liking and for once she was going to be able to control who was around her and who wasn't. It was a nice feeling.

One thing the teen didn't know or realize, was that she'd stopped excessively checking her phone for messages from her father since she met the man who was now dragging her into a diner.

* * *

**A/N: **And that was the longest chapter of anything I've ever written... goddamn... I apologize if there are any misspellings or errors anywhere in result of that. I hope you enjoyed their meeting. It was fun to write. Also, I'd like to know your opinions on how I'm characterizing them! If something is off or spot on, please let me know. It helps out a lot! natsu's already gettin some dokis~

Thanks for all the reviews so far, I'm super happy you're enjoying this. If you want, tell me some of your fave tropes and I'll work them into the story~ thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Two days had passed since Lucy met the fast paced, nonstop, live wire of energy that was Natsu Dragneel and become friends with him, he had declared this. They'd gone to a diner that first night and it had to be one of the worst examples of table manners Lucy had ever seen. The guy could _eat_. Even when he wasn't the one paying, though Lucy never did say there was a limit to what he could order, the rosy haired man didn't hold back an ounce. He stuffed his face one dish after the other and she seriously wondered just how in the world he managed to stay as fit as he was. The bill, Lucy had reluctantly taken from the waitress, had amounted to around sixty dollars for just the two of them. Some might think it weird for a girl who came from wealth to find that expensive but even with that upbringing she'd always been a penny pincher.

Natsu hadn't shown an ounce of shame, only immense gratitude that she had treated him to dinner.

It made up for it in a way.

Then when she had _finally_ gotten what she needed, bulbs, dog food, and some regular food, he made good on his promise and walked her home. It was dark by the time she was done shopping, but not dark enough to where she couldn't see and when she said walking back on her own was fine, he refused. He replied with something like Erza would hang him upside down for thirty minutes if he let her go on her own, and Lucy was seriously beginning to question whether the red haired, armor wearing woman was his friend.

In the end, he had gotten her home and they said their goodbyes just as the sun was about to disappear. Lucy had felt guilty that he was going to have to walk back in the darkness, but he gave her a grin and said he ran fast so he'd be back in the towns' limits in less than two minutes. She hadn't been in a place to doubt him, she didn't know how fast he could run and considering how fit he was, this was something Lucy had taken note of often in the time they were together, it was most likely possible for him.

But now, in the early afternoon of the third day she'd been in Magnolia, Lucy had run into a problem.

There was only one of her.

Dear God in heaven what she wouldn't _do_ for a cloning machine.

There were just way, way, _way_ too many things the house needed done and not enough time in the world, it seemed, to do them. First of all, it was in desperate need of cleaning. Ten years of not tending to a house would do that she supposed. Though, by some miracle, the house was still in very good shape. There weren't any cases of mold or little creatures staking their claim to the home so at least that was something to smile about. Second of all, things needed fixing. Like, handy man fixing. She was _not_ equipped to do that. Lucy hadn't done a single piece of physical labor other than deep cleaning and working out in all her years. The gate needed fixing, she was still jumping over it, the door, the back door, the deck in the back needed board replacements- Lucy was going to lose her mind.

She yelled in frustration to herself as she paced back and forth through the living room, her voice bouncing off the high wooden ceiling, "What was I thinking…? I should've known the house would be so unkempt…" Lucy sighed, collapsing on her couch, she had cleaned the hell out of it earlier, and threw an arm over her face.

The teen stayed like that for a few seconds until Plue, she named the puppy Plue, jumped onto her stomach, knocking the air out of her, and began licking her face, "Okay, okay!" she sat up and, despite being winded, laughed, "Sorry, I know you want to get out but I really need to fix this place up first."

Lucy knew there was an obvious answer to her problems.

She just didn't want to ask.

She was being stubborn.

Very stubborn. Irrationally, _unnecessarily_, stubborn.

Lucy, who had been petting the puppy while getting lost in thought over what she knew she should do, groaned loudly and jumped off her couch.

"FINE."

She grabbed her phone, stomped over to her door, slid her boots on, pet Plue goodbye, and left the house.

She was going to ask Natsu for help.

It was the one thing she didn't want to do. Not because she didn't like him or anything but because she wanted to do it herself. She wanted to prove to herself that she could fix things and make leaving home work on her own. By her own power- yadda, yadda, etc., etc. All in all, she just wanted to be able to depend on herself to get things done. But you could only expect so much from someone who didn't know the first thing about fixing houses or handy work.

Lucy sighed and kicked up some dirt on the long path to town. Another reason she didn't want to ask was that she didn't want to bother him again. The girl still didn't know where they stood exactly, despite him saying they were friends she couldn't take that at face value due to their unlikely meeting and her rude-ish behavior toward him. Never in her life had she hit someone like she had done him, much less hit someone she didn't _know_. Yes, she was still stressing over it. It was still very strange to her that she reacted that way.

Maybe that was her real personality?

Who knew?

That was certainly plausible due to her rarely being able to express a real personality since she was a kid… Okay, now she just sounded sad.

"Oh whatever!" she shook her head and cleared her mind, rubbing a bead of sweat off her neck, "It's not like you see people doing home improvement by themselves anyway. There's always a crew or something."

Lucy made her resolve, and figured she'd try and pay him for it too, in return for him helping her out the other day.

"But God…" she sighed and wiped her neck again, "I really need to get a bike…"

* * *

Natsu groaned and practically slammed his head down on the warehouses' bar, eliciting a surprised noise from Mira and quite possibly giving himself a minor concussion.

He was so bored.

So. _Bored_.

The teen had just finished three jobs in the past two days, and since it was around the end of the month jobs were running scarce. There were still some available, but he knew he needed to leave them for the people who needed it. Natsu mostly worked for the fun of it really, but even that drive wore thin sometimes. He considered asking Gray if he wanted to hang out but didn't when he remembered the guy had announced he was gonna sleep in for some reason. Gajeel was another choice, barely, but he knew that whipped guy would be helping Levy out with her monthly library cleaning… so that option was automatically a bust.

So yeah. Bored.

"Miiiiiiiiraaa…" he groaned like a twelve year old, "What's there for me to do?"

"Umm…" the woman began to think as she was serving a customer their food and the default smile on her face turned mischievous, "How about you hang out with that pretty girl that came here a few days ago?" she sounded positively welcomed to the idea, like she would _pay_ for him to do that, "I haven't seen her since the day she came around. Have you talked to her?"

Natsu thought for a moment.

Sure the idea had crossed his mind, but he just hadn't acted on it. Also he didn't know if it would be alright to just… show up at her house… It seemed like that would be weird? Was it okay for a person you just met to appear at your house and ask to hang out? Was that something people did? He could also just call her but that conversation would be sure to end awkwardly if she said no. When he'd thought about the possibility of asking her, those questions began running through his head and started to give him a headache so he set the option aside.

But really, was it okay for him to show up?

Cause he would. He definitely would.

She seemed like fun, and a good person, weird but good.

Natsu also couldn't deny that he wanted to see that dog again…

"Nah I haven't seen her." He replied simply in order to throw Mira off her romantic imaginings.

"Really? You two seemed like you hit it off."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" he questioned and picked his head up, really not knowing what that was supposed to be getting at.

"It means she thought you two got along well." Erza, who had just walked in a second ago, answered for Mira and sat down next to the rosy haired teen.

"Oh… then why didn't you just say that instead…?"

"It was a… never mind." Mira sighed, a little let down that he hadn't spoken to Lucy.

"Though I do have to agree with her." Erza smiled and set her elbow on the counter, turning to face him, "You two seemed like fast friends."

"Well _I_ definitely see her as a friend." Natsu replied in truth, "She paid for my dinner that night so she's great in my book. Dunno about her though. She hasn't tried to talk to me or anything so…" he trailed off, not wanting to sound too disappointed but he knew it was probably evident on his face.

"Well have _you_ tried to contact _her_?" Erza asked and gave him a look he couldn't decipher.

"…No…" He didn't want to answer.

"Then you're partly at fault. Don't make it sound like it's on her. The girl probably has things she needs to do. She is new to town after all."

"Ah!" Natsu shot up, "That's right! Her house's a wreck!" he grinned at the realization and Erza found that odd.

"And that's something to be happy about?"

"Yea!- Well, no, I mean that sucks for her," he explained, "but that'll give me somethin' to do."

"I suppose." She nodded, "Only if she wants your help of course. Don't overstep your boundaries- you've been known to be a bit overwhelming."

Natsu gave her a sour look, "You want me to help her out or not? First you get me to walk her home, now you're tellin' me I step on boundaries…"

"W-Well…" She contemplated his words, "You're right… hmm. Trying to befriend people is complicated isn't it?" the woman chuckled.

"Yeah I guess." He sat back down, "Never really had to think about it before." Which was true. All of his real friends, not counting his acquaintances from shops he frequented, were people he'd grown up with and in result he didn't have to worry about what he should or shouldn't do with them.

The teen groaned and put his head back on the counter, "Great. Back to square one."

"Stop your whining." Mira scolded, "Where's the bold Natsu I know? If you want to help her out there's no harm in asking! The worst she can do is say no."

Natsu only "hmm"d in reply. All that complicated "befriending" stuff was hurting his head- which is why he stopped thinking about maybe trying to see her in the first place.

"Mira's right you know. If it turns out that she-" Erza had begun to respond but was suddenly cut off by a rise of voices near the warehouses' entrance.

"Oh! Miss Lucy's back!"

"Here for another date with that troublemaker?"

"Can't believe he's already got a girlfriend… seemed like only yesterday he was pickin' up lizards and chasin' people with it…"

"Oh for goodness sake! I'm not his girlfriend!" Natsu heard a chime like voice snap and his head shot up instantly, looking in the direction it came from.

Erza noticed this and thought he almost looked like a pup who realized their owner had just come home- she laughed at the mental image.

Mira almost jumped for joy, "Luuucy!" she called out to her, giving the girl an escape from the teasing, and grinned as she made her way over.

"Geez!" Lucy complained and went over to the three, "When are they going to learn I'm not his girlfriend!" She spoke as if it'd been going on for years.

"Nice to see you." Erza greeted with a smile, "I was beginning to think you wouldn't come around again."

Lucy looked slightly embarrassed, "Oh I wasn't deliberately not coming here I just had things I needed to do- well, _still_ need to do. Moving in has been tough."

"I can imagine."

"Yeah it must be." Mira replied while wiping down a pint.

Natsu still hadn't spoken.

"Where is it you're staying?" she asked.

"It's an over by the… what was it called… I can't remember the name of it but it's over by a lake. The house is a bit of an old thing and pretty deep into a wooded area so I doubt you've seen it. Which brings me to what I came here for." She turned to Natsu, who still hadn't spoken and by now he thought it'd be awkward to, "I'm sorry to ask but… I need some help."

"Y-yeah sure!" He thanked god for not having jump into the conversation, "I told ya if you needed help you could call and ask."

He was about to grin but was taken by surprise, as well as Erza and Mira, when the blonde slapped her forehead, "Oh my god- I forgot I had your number…" she groaned, "I just walked all the way here when I could've called! …ugh and feet are killing me now."

"PFFT." Natsu tried to hold in his laughter, "M-Man and your house is pretty far too. My bad. I was thinkin' about seeing if you needed help with that house earlier- could've saved you the trouble."

"Well thanks anyway and yeah I do need help…" she looked kinda pissed from what Natsu could tell, "It's a nightmare! I thought I could get it done myself but you can guess how well _that_ went."

He could. The look on her face and the band aids on her right hand gave it away.

"No worries!" he tried to cheer her up, "Lucky for you I'm great with fixing things."

_Oh thank God…_ Lucy was mentally relieved. She hadn't known if he would be able to help despite his offering and if he didn't then she was screwed.

"I can pay you for the trouble too."

"Nah no need." He replied and slid off his stool, "Just givin' me something to do is payment enough."

"_Really?_" Lucy didn't know anyone who'd be willing to work a job like what she was giving for free.

"Really." Erza spoke with a knowing smile, "I'd be willing to join you both as well. Seems like you could use all the help you can get."

"That would be amazing but I'd really feel bad not paying you." She tried to level out the giving and receiving that was happening but they were having none of it.

"It's fine, it's fine!" Natsu assured her, "We might as well get Gray in on this too. I _know_ he isn't doin' anything. Just sleepin' in."

"I wish I could help out but I have to keep the bar going." Mira apologized and went back to serving her other customers.

Lucy let her worries subside and was happy she convinced herself to come ask for help. It wasn't a crime, though she did have the awful habit of feeling kinda guilty for asking things of people, but with the way they received her she thought to ask for help a little more often.

"Oi, stripper." Natsu, who had been in the process of calling Gray, spoke into his phone.

_S-Stripper…?!_ Lucy involuntarily reddened.

"You up for some home improvement?"

A pause.

"_No_ I did _not_ break my front door again."

Another pause.

"God- I didn't break anyone's door!"

More pause.

"You wanna say that again?!"

"Enough." Erza snapped and grabbed the phone from Natsu, "Gray? We're helping Lucy out with her home. … Yes that "blonde chick" we saw the other day. Anyway, you're coming to help too. … Well _are_ you doing anything? … Then you're helping. Be here in two minutes. Do _not_ forget your pants."

And she hung up.

_Is he that dedicated to stripping that he'd forget his pants…?_ Lucy wondered.

"Oh- I forgot to ask when you need to leave. Damn, I should've given him one minute."

"N-no… it's alright. I'm not in any rush and to be honest this is probably going to take more than one day-"

"Hell yeah it's gonna take more than one day." Natsu laughed, "That house was a mess! That window would hardly open and I was using most of my strength on the thing."

"…Yeah. What he said." Lucy just agreed with him, not feeling like getting ticked off about being interrupted.

"I'm good with it." He spoke again, "Can't speak for anyone else though."

"Hmm, I'm free today but tomorrow and the day after I'll be busy. If you still need help after I'd be happy to join you again." Erza replied to the end Natsu's sentence.

"Thank you, really." Lucy smiled at the red head, "Just today is a big enough help."

"I'm here!" Gray, who had sped his ass to the warehouse, appeared near the doors, "More than a minute left."

"I could've made it in half that!" Natsu replied with a challenging grin.

"Oh you want to bet on it?"

"Yeah I wanna b-"

"We're leaving." Erza stated and got up, quickly ending their short exchange.

Lucy _really_ wondered what just kind of relationship these people had with each other.

* * *

"What the _hell_?!" Gray exclaimed as he saw the house he was supposed to be helping fix, "This is a damn mansion!"

"Haha I know right!" Natsu laughed and walked up the stairs about to let himself in when Erza stopped him with a flick on the back of his head.

"Sorry Lucy, you think he would've learned."

"It's fine, it's locked anyway. And this really isn't a mansion…" She wanted to disassociate her new home with that word at all costs.

Lucy walked up and joined Natsu, who was reluctantly waiting for her to open the door, and grinned at his "just scolded" look. Quickly, she unlocked the house and let them in calling out to her puppy when she entered, "Pluuuue!"

She waited a few seconds and smiled when she saw the little thing dart into view, barking away.

"What kinda name's Plue?" Natsu asked as he walked in, followed by a very curious Erza and Gray.

"A _good_ one!" Lucy retorted defensively.

"This is quite the home…" Erza spoke up, awed by how large it was.

"That's one way of puttin' it." Gray said and began taking off his shirt.

Lucy noticed this, "Wh-What are you doing?!" she yelled, "Okay that might be your job, I don't know, but this is a _no_ stripping zone! Keep that at work!"

"The fuck? I'm no stripper! Who told you _that_?!"

"**AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHA!**" Natsu began the loudest laughed Lucy had ever heard, the boom of it even scaring Plue.

"You bastard! You told her I was a stripper?!"

"No- _ah, oh my god my stomach_- _no_ I didn't say that but you pretty much are." He continued laughing, and Erza couldn't help but join in.

"You _are_ stripping in her house, Gray." She spoke up when her chuckling stopped.

"Wait… so you're _not_ a stripper?" Lucy questioned, causing another round of laughter from Natsu.

"Hell no I'm not a stripper! Clothes are just too restricting so I take them off sometimes! Now let's drop it!" He demanded and left his shirt halfway unbuttoned. It was better than nothing for him.

"O… Okay…?" Lucy thought it was probably for the best.

"Alright, so?" Natsu looked down at the blonde, "Where do you want us to start?"

"Well, seeing as though you probably know way more about this than I do, I'll handle the cleaning, whoever wants to help me with that can, and you just… look around and see what needs to be done and bought I guess." She finished and Natsu nodded.

"Well I already know that window needs to be fixed." He joked and walked off, beginning to survey the house.

"I'll go make sure he doesn't wreck this place further." Gray said and followed Natsu.

"It's not wrecked!" She retorted but he was already gone.

The girl sighed and turned to Erza who was having a stare down with Plue. She looked like she desperately wanted to touch the creature.

"M-May I?" she asked and Lucy laughed.

"Of course you can." The blonde bent down to pick up the puppy and brought him face to face with Erza who looked like she might cry from excitement, "Here."

Lucy placed him into Erza's hands and immediately he began to lick her face, "He likes you!"

"Adorable." She stated and set him down after a few good pets, "Though he _is_ going to get very big soon, but it looks like you have the space for him. He seems to be in good hands." She smiled.

For some reason Lucy felt a bit overwhelmed.

"Umm, so would you like to help with the cleaning or would you rather go along with them?"

"I wouldn't leave you to do a job on all on your own. They can handle that." She replied and walked further into the house, "I might have to keep an eye on them though but I can do both."

Lucy laughed, "Almost like a mom."

"Indeed. Or maybe an older sister, which I consider myself." Erza grinned, "I've known them for a long time now. They're family."

Lucy gave an almost sad smile, "Must be nice. I've always wanted siblings. Though being an only child has advantages, I've heard." The teens she would speak to before would always tell her being the only kid in her family was a gift. There was no competition over succession.

"It's quite nice. Before them there was really no one whom I could call family. So I'm grateful. But enough of that for now!" Erza spoke with vigor and rolled up her shirts sleeve, she had traded in her armor for regular clothes that day, "Let's get to cleaning."

She looked to Lucy, expecting her to do something, "What is it?"

"Lead the way to the cleaning supplies."

"…"

"You _do_ have cleaning supplies…?"

"O-Oh… haha… um…" Lucy wanted to evaporate.

"That's alright." Erza spoke but her tone told a different story, "We just have to go back to town and get some then…"

"I'm sorry!"

"Well… no really it's probably for the better. We were going to have to go back and get materials for your home anyway, might as well check for the things we're going to need now." The red haired woman reasoned and took the lead in inspecting the homes state of cleanliness, an embarrassed blonde trailing behind.

* * *

Hours of hard labor, almost accidents, and Plue continuously trying to chew up Natsu's shoe passed and Lucy thought she'd witnessed a miracle.

While there was still a lot of work that needed to be done, the help she enlisted from Fairy Tail had made a huge dent in that load. Those three moved like a team even when they were doing different jobs, and very quickly at that. The first thing Natsu had done when they got the supplies they needed was fix that "pesky window" as he called it. Erza and Lucy had surprisingly done most of the cleaning. The floors and counters were now spotless but she still had some serious dusting to do. Gray had assisted in fixing her door and whatever else Natsu decided needed doing, somehow losing over half his clothes in time, much to Lucy's dismay.

The house was really beginning to look like it's old self and Lucy couldn't help but wonder what her dad would think of her fixing up the place. Whether he'd be outraged or actually kind of happy about it, she didn't know. Seems there was a lot of things she didn't know about her dad. There were still no calls from him and surprisingly it wasn't bothering Lucy much. While she did miss her friendly maids and butlers and hoped she didn't make them upset by leaving, the girl couldn't come to regret her decision. Now that her mother's house, now hers, was starting to get fixed up Lucy was feeling a lot more optimistic about her choice.

The four of them, as well as Plue, were now sprawled out on the empty deck in her backyard, if it could even be called that- it was just a wide open space with no real fence to speak of that backed onto the lake, absolutely beat. They'd worked for hours and Lucy was already dreading waking up the next morning, knowing she was really going to be feeling it then.

"Oh man… that was harder than I thought it was going to be…" Natsu spoke up after a few minutes of just listening to the cicadas.

"Tell me about it." Gray agreed- he was only in his boxers now.

"That window wall, or what is it called again?" Erza asked.

"I have no idea. Window wall's fine." Lucy replied.

"Well whatever it is needs to be sent to hell." She let her obvious distaste for the large window in Lucy's living room out, "Why would anyone need a window that big? I don't see the point in it."

"Aesthetic."

"Gesundheit." Natsu spoke.

"What?" Lucy laughed.

"I said Ges-"

"I didn't _sneeze_."

"Then what the hell was that just now?"

"Aesthetic. Meaning, concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty."

"Oh… the hells a big ass window have to do with beauty?"

"It looks nice." She said simply.

"I guess, though for someone who doesn't like pitch blackness I can't imagine why you'd like a window that big in your living room…"

"There's a blind that rolls down… anyway my mom liked it so-" She stopped her sentence short.

"What was that about your mom?" Erza questioned.

"It's nothing."

Lucy got up and looked down at the three still sprawled out like children in front of her, "Anyway, since you're not letting me pay you guys the least I can do is treat you to dinner." She suggested the idea and really found it funny that it was the second time she was going to thank someone with dinner.

"That would be nice, but I can't let you pay for all of-"

"Nope! No way!" she cut Erza off, "I need to give you _something_ back and dinner is really the least I can do. There's not a chance you all are leaving without letting me thank you."

Gray and Natsu looked at the two women apprehensively. People rarely argued with Erza and anyone who did, whether it was over a small or big thing, always lost.

The red head let Lucy's words brew for a moment and conceded, "Fine- as long as you're completely comfortable with spending that much. You did buy quite few expensive things today."

"Don't worry about that. It'll be fine." Though she was going to have to consider getting a job sometime soon,"But you!" she pointed to an innocent looking Natsu, "You're not allowed to go crazy like the other night."

"Tch."

"Did you just click your tongue at me?" Lucy was unbelieving of the action. He literally just clicked his tongue, like a twelve year old, at her.

"No. I was going to apologize and pay you back anyway." He even _spoke_ like twelve year old.

"No, no- you're not doing that because then she's going to think it's okay to repay me for tonight's dinner."

"Tch." Erza clicked her tongue this time, a little irritated Lucy had found her out so quickly.

"You too?!"

"Oooookay you three can go on about paying/not paying and tongue clicks," Gray stood up, "But I'm going to get some very much needed food. Who's comin'?"

"Me." The three of them replied in unison.

"So?" Natsu got up and walked next to Lucy as they went inside, "What are we getting?" he sounded excited.

"_I_ have no idea. You're the ones who're supposed to be choosing- Plue come on!" she replied to him and stopped to called to her puppy who was chasing a butterfly.

"Erza!" he shouted over to her, "Whaddya want?"

"Lucy chooses."

"Wha-?"

"You heard her." Natsu laughed and replied with a grin. He knew Erza would get her way somehow.

"Well…" she thought, "I still have no idea- I mean, I don't exactly know what restaurants this town has…"

"Whoa you want a fancy dinner?"

"No! I just said no crazy expensive food!"

"You said "restaurant". That means fancy."

"Ugh. You know what I mean."

"Clearly I didn't."

"Well what do you call them then?! Since you're being so picky about it."

"Picky?! Restaurant means fancy! Plain and simple!"

"Restaurant, a place where people pay to sit and eat meals that are cooked and served on the premises. Nowhere in that definition is there a "fancy"."

"What are you a walking dictionary?"

"Maybe."

"Anyway, food. What do you want?"

"I just said I don't know what's around here! That's why I want you guys to choose!"

"I meant just pick a type!"

"Oh…" Lucy thought for a moment, bringing her hand to her chin, "Are you okay with Chinese?"

Natsu made face.

"That's it! I'm not choosing. You choose."

"But Erza sai-"

"You. Choose."

The two continued to bicker in front of the doorway into the house as Erza and Gray looked on.

"How long you think until they get together?" he asked jokingly and Erza smacked his shoulder.

"Hey!"

"I do see what you mean though." And she did. They were an odd pairing, but they seemed to get along rather well. Extremely well for only knowing each other for a few days. It made her happy.

"Right? I give it a few weeks."

"Hmm… I don't know." Erza squinted her eyes a bit and concentrated on Lucy, "I think there's a lot more to her than what we see… I feel like she's hiding something. Which of course is her business, but I don't think, and this is just my intuition, that she's going to let anyone in deep easily."

"Huh…" Gray didn't have a response to that but Erza's intuition was usually right.

"Well, who knows?" she crossed her arms and smiled at the pair, "Anything could happen. Look at Gajeel and Levy."

"Haha! Yeah that was the last thing I expected…"

"We'll just have to let them develop on their own. If they even develop. I, for one, like her. She's very easy to talk to."

"Guess so. When she talks it does feel kinda… I don't know… natural…?" he couldn't find the right word but didn't care enough to try and find one, food being his number one concern at the moment, "Okay this is gone on long enough. Hey lovebirds! We eating or what?"

"We're _not_ lovebirds!" they replied simultaneously, looking peeved they did.

"She still won't choose!" Natsu reported in a frustrated tone and began walking toward them along with Lucy.

"I won't." The blonde was stuck on her stubbornness.

"Yes you will. Just pick a type." Erza demanded.

"I already did! But Mr. Picky over here doesn't want Chinese food." She gestured to Natsu.

Gray and Erza made a face.

"Of course! Of course neither of you want it either!"

"Well, we just haven't had pleasant memories concerning Chinese food, but we don't hate it." Erza replied, still making a face.

"Your face's say otherwise."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"I'm done. Let's just go and figure it out on the way. We're losing daylight." Lucy stated and walked off.

"I think we made her mad…" Natsu whispered to Erza.

"You think we should tell her the story?" Gray also whispered.

"Let's just hurry so we don't inconvenience her further." Erza didn't bother whispering since Lucy was already out of sight.

They walked over to the front door to find Lucy leaning against the wall along with Plue at her feet. Natsu wanted to laugh at how they almost looked like a pair of thugs waiting to steal their money, but thought against it when she looked up at them.

"Did you three decide?" her voice was cold.

"Burgers."

"Italian."

"Mexican."

They all spoke at once and Lucy unwillingly let a laugh out.

Natsu smiled.

"Mexican it is then." She agreed with Gray's choice and opened the door, letting them go ahead of her.

"Tch. Why Gray's pick?" The rosy haired teen mumbled to himself as he walked out.

"Did I hear another tongue click?" Lucy asked as she pet Plue goodbye and locked the door.

"No."

"Uh-huh."

The four of them began walking away from her house, Gray and Erza ahead of the other two, and Lucy wondered aloud, "Does that place deliver? The place we're going?"

"It does but I doubt they'd come all the way out here…" Natsu replied, feeling sorry for the girl and how she'd probably never be able to get delivery…

"It's not _that_ far... really…" She countered.

"Far enough that they wouldn't come, probably, but I wouldn't know. You'd have to ask… Does this place even have an address?"

She made an "I don't know" sound accompanied with an expression that made Natsu want to stop walking for a second.

It was… cute?

_Huh…_ he thought.

_Weird._

Noticing he had fallen behind a bit, he jogged back to the group and started up another conversation, not so unwelcoming to Gray's choice of Mexican food now.

* * *

**A/N:** Mostly dialogue in this one but I hope you enjoyed it! I just wanted to let them get to know each other a little better and bonding over housework, I've learned, is pretty effective. Oh and yeah I decided to name the dog Plue. He's apparently a kind of dog after all so it's fitting imo. Also I hope I was able to describe the house well enough. I have this mental image in my head but if it's a bit hard to imagine- it's supposed to be somewhat of a wooden architectural home but a bit old looking of course due to when it was made. Google it if you'd like a clearer picture. I just really love those huge ass windows.

There's still more housework to be done and now Natsu's the only one available. That should be fun. ;) Thanks for reading and thank you all for such nice reviews. Imma cry.


	6. Chapter 6

A six year old Lucy ran giddily around her mother's garden, picking flowers of many different types and colors for a _very_ special occasion. She'd been anticipating the day for weeks, trying to keep the plans that she'd made with her father on the down low, but now that it was finally there she couldn't hold her excitement in any longer. So, as the girl went around making a bouquet to go along with the present she'd bought, she sang happy birthday to herself over and over, practicing for later that night.

It was finally the happy day of her mother's birthday.

It was going to be a small party this year, and Lucy was positively ecstatic about it. Most years her parents held a humongous party and though she was very welcomed to join them, it kinda seemed like all those strangers were stealing her spot- her mom would always find her at the end of the night anyway, saying time with her was her true birthday gift. Despite how Lucy adored the parties and dresses and her mother's happy glow, she'd much rather have a small party like they were having that night.

Somehow she'd managed to convince her father of it, and actually, when he considered it, he told her it was a pretty good idea.

That made her very happy.

"Lucy!" Her mom called out to her in a sing song voice, one Lucy recognized like her all-time favorite doll, "Are you coming in for lunch? I made your favorite!"

The little girl shot up in her spot, becoming visible to her mother, "Peanut butter and banana sandwiches?!" she grinned with a sparkle in her eye.

"With a tall glass of ice cold milk, just how you like." Layla returned her daughters smile.

"Yay!"

Lucy ran over to her mom, tackling her in their usual hug, "Can we eat out here? It feels really nice."

"Sure thing… but wait, what are those?" The mother raised a curious, but knowing, eyebrow in regards to the messy gathering of flowers in her daughter's right hand.

"N-Nothing!" Lucy immediately hid them behind her back, "Umm, wait there!" she sped away, back to where she'd been before, and set the flowers down, hiding them, "See! There's nothing!" The girl walked back to her mom with her hands raised, "Not one thing in these hands."

She looked a little proud of herself for evading the question and Layla couldn't help but laugh.

"Alright, since you want to eat out here help me bring it out."

"No need Mrs. Heartfilia." A butler came walking out the large backdoors of the mansion holding a tray with their food on it, "I could hear the little miss from all the way inside." He winked teasingly toward Lucy and she stuck her tongue out in good humor.

"Oh, thank you." Layla smiled in appreciation, "Lucy, what do you say?"

"Ah! Thank you!"

"The pleasure's mine little miss." The elderly man set their food on the garden table and before leaving them to their leisure said, "Let me know if you need anything else."

"We will. Thank you again."

"It's no problem."

"Hey mom!" Lucy, who'd already gone to sit down, called out to Layla, "Come on!"

"Coming, coming." She laughed and joined her daughter.

"I can't wait for the party later!" The girl exclaimed while stuffing her face, "It's gonna be so much fun!"

"You seem more excited for my birthday than I do."

She stopped eating, "You're not excited?!"

"No- of _course_ I am." Layla giggled at the horrified expression on Lucy's face, "You're just way better at it."

She still didn't get it but it seemed like her mom was happy so she figured it didn't matter and moved onto the next topic, "Oh mom! I forgot there was something I wanted to ask you."

"Well?" The woman set her sandwich down, "What is it?"

"Do you think magic is real?" she asked very seriously, "I saw something on T.V. earlier and it was some guy who was doing all kinda tricks and he was like floating and stuff but people were saying it wasn't real and that he was faking it? Do you think he was faking it?" The girl eyed her mom very seriously, hoping for a specific answer.

"Hmm," Layla put a hand on her chin, "That's a difficult question- since I didn't see it. So I really wouldn't know... But!" she continued when her daughter's face fell, "There's a different kind of magic I most _definitely_ believe in."

Lucy's eyes lit up, "What, what?!"

"I don't know if I should tell you though…" Layla expressed fake hesitation, "It's a very, very, _very_ big secret…"

"I can keep a secret!" She jumped out her chair that was across from her mom and traded it for a much closer one, "I'm really good at keeping them! I keep them all the time!" Which was a lie. Lucy hardly had any secrets told to her that she could keep.

"Are you positive?" she put her most stern face on, "It's a very big piece of information."

"I'm _extreeeeeeeeeeeemely_ positive!"

"Alright then, come here." She motioned for Lucy to bring her ear forward, "Love."

The girl pulled back, "Love?"

Layla smiled, "That's right! L-O-V-E-."

"Wait… how's that magic?" she asked in complete confusion. The girl was expecting something like bunnies being pulled from hats to be real. She would beg every day for the rest of her life for one of those hats.

"Hahaah!" Layla laughed at her daughters' naiveté, "Oh dear, if only you knew."

"Let me explain." She went on after she knew she'd only confused Lucy further, "You love me, right?"

"Of course!"

"And I love you, right?"

"O-Of course…?" she was a little weirded out by the question having never wondered about it before.

"Okay, now imagine love not existing… Imagine us not being able to love each other, can you?"

"No way." Lucy refused to try, "That sounds awful."

"Oh it is sweetie." she agreed, "But now you can see how important it is, right?"

"Yeah… I guess so."

"Now think of something that makes you sad."

"Umm… when I see someone crying it makes me sad. That count?"

"It does. Now can you imagine seeing someone cry making you happy?"

"What? No! Where's this going?"

"Hahha! Okay, okay let me get to the point." Layla moved to face her daughter better, "Love is something that can make you happy but can also make you sad. That's why I asked if you can ever get happiness from something that makes you sad."

"Oh… so… um… love makes you sad and happy? But loving you guys hasn't ever made me sad!"

"There are also many different _kinds_ of love. You haven't experienced them all yet, but do you get what I'm saying?"

"I think so… it sounds complicated."

"Exactly!" Her mother smiled. She was hoping her daughter would say that. "Love is so big and so different and can give you so many different feelings. It can make you sad and happy, angry and tired, it can turn you into a completely different person sometimes!"

"Like shape-shifting?!"

"No-Well…" Layla forgot for a moment that she was speaking to a six year old, "Almost. Your appearance doesn't change but your feelings and personality might."

Lucy watched her mom's face closely as she explained, soaking the words in, "Love can heal people as well as it can hurt people."

"But hurting people is bad…"

"You're absolutely right and love isn't always good. It's complicated, like you said earlier." Layla put her elbows on her knees and leaned further toward her daughter, "That's why I think it's magical."

"Whoa…" Lucy's mouth turned into a slight "o" shape as her mother spoke.

"Something so big and weird that has _so_ many different sides to it and can make you feel so many things _has_ to magical." She smiled at the look in Lucy's eyes, "And not many people are able to find a love that's all theirs. I was lucky enough to find your dad and later have you."

Layla sat back and pointed to her heart with a grin, "I now have not one, but two of love's best forms."

"Really?!" Lucy jumped up, "What are they?!"

"I just told you silly. You and your dad."

"So if you have two… _things? _of love, does that make you a…" the girl gasped, "Does that make you a magician?!"

"Why yes!" she fed her daughter's imaginings, "Yes it does!"

"What's this about magicians?" Jude came walking into view, smiling at the sight of his daughter and wife sitting under the shade, "Did we hire a magician for tonight?"

"Dad!" Lucy ran up to her father, "Mom's a magician!"

"Really now?" he smiled and bent down to hug her as she clamped onto his torso, "Why was I never told this?"

"So much for keeping secrets." Layla laughed and walked over to her family, "It was supposed to be a surprise."

"And what kind of magic do you specialize in?" he went along with the topic.

"Love!" Lucy answered for her mom with a wide grin on her face. "That's so cool right?

Jude laughed, "Well then that means I'm a magician too!"

"What?!" Lucy gasped and let go of her dad, "You too?! Why didn't anyone ever tell me?"

"A magician can't reveal their secrets." He put an index finger on his mouth, causing Lucy to become quite serious, "So don't go telling everyone alright?"

"I won't!" she stuck her pinky finger out to Jude and he took it with his own, "Promise."

"Alright then. Good." He grinned and ruffled his daughters' hair up, leaning in close to her ear, "Did you manage to get the flowers?"

She covered the side of her mouth with her hand and whispered back, "I did, I did! They look really pretty too!"

"Good job." He chuckled and stood up straight, giving his wife a quick kiss on her cheek, "Now where are these sandwiches I was hearing about? They're peanut butter and banana right?"

"Uh huh- wait, hey!" Lucy sped after her dad who broke into a run, "Don't eat them all!"

"Too bad slow poke! They're all mine!" Jude wore a broad smile and had at _one_ sandwich when he got to them, letting Lucy plop herself in his lap when she reached him.

Layla smiled at her family who was stuffing their faces with her sandwiches, glad they liked them. Her birthdays had always been one of her favorite days of the year. Not because the day was "all about her" but because of how happy it seemed to make her daughter and husband. Lucy always got so giddy and would practically glow from excitement. Jude would shower her with affection, like he usually did but with a little more planning behind his actions. They seemed so, so happy and in turn that made _her_ happy.

She hoped for many more joy causing birthdays in the future.

* * *

Lucy opened her eyes slowly and unwillingly, disappointed to see a wooden ceiling in front of her eyes instead of a tray filled with her favorite sandwiches. She tried to process her thoughts for a moment before she realized what had just transpired. It'd been a long time since she dreamt about her family. A _long_ time since she remembered the way they used to be. When she was younger any form of being able to hear her mother talk again brought her comfort. Whether it was a dream or a video, it always brought just a little _bit_ of comfort. But as she got older the ease hearing her mom would bring was replaced by sadness, unfortunately. That was why it didn't surprise Lucy when she realized she was crying.

The teen sat up in her sleeping bag, she hadn't gotten around to getting a bed yet, and harshly rubbed her eyes. _Damn… they're swollen…_ she mentally cursed her lack of control concerning unconscious emotions.

She put her hands down, laid them in her lap, and just stared- stupidly getting lost in thought about her past.

Her dad had always been so… _happy_ back then. When her mom had been there everything was perfect. He would work but not to the point of being somewhat a recluse. The days would go by without a single shout or uncaring glance. They would eat sandwiches and talk about random things while enjoying the sun. Jude would even suggest they play hide and seek in the garden while her mom would sometimes keep score of who found who more until she wanted to play as well.

He'd been so happy.

It made her wonder just how he could've ended up the way he did when he'd married someone like her mom. He knew her and what she would want. He knew that if she saw him now she'd slap him silly and yell his ear off. But then again, Lucy would always think about the two sides to it, maybe it was _because_ he married someone like her mom and lost her that he became that way. Losing someone was just _awful_, she knew that well. It was probably the most terrible thing in the world- and to lose someone as wonderful and magical as her mom…

That was one of the reasons she couldn't _fully_ bring herself to hate her father.

She was pissed of course, beyond pissed and hurt and betrayed but with him being her dad and knowing what he was like _before_… It was just too complicated for her liking.

"Damn it…" she crawled out of her sleeping bag, careful not to wake up Plue who had curled up next to her legs, and made her way into the bathroom.

Lucy tied her hair up and turned the faucet on, splashing cold water on her face hoping to erase the trail her tears had left. She had just woken up and already her mood was sour. She was getting pissed off. It wasn't supposed to be like that anymore. She wasn't supposed to get overwhelmed and cry for no good reason. Her hands weren't supposed to shake. Her heart wasn't supposed to feel like it was quivering and she sure as hell wasn't supposed to be pitying _herself_.

She shouldn't feel like she was about to be pushed over a cliff that would spiral her into a deep, dark pit of unwanted emotions she thought she'd left behind.

The girl looked into her mirror and stared, something you really shouldn't do when you're a wreck, and just as her face began to twist into an odd expression she wished to never see again, her doorbell rang. Plue, startled by the noise, shot up in his spot and began to bark his head off, scratching at the bedroom door letting Lucy know he wanted to be let out.

Quickly, she wiped her face and turned the water off, "Okay, okay- hold on." The blonde grimaced at the quiver in her voice.

"Let whoever that is know I'll be there in a second." She rubbed Plue's head and opened the door, watching him speed out of the room.

_Okay Lucy calm down…_ _you're fine…_ She reprimanded herself as she bottled up that awful wave of emotions that'd come out of nowhere, and made sure she looked somewhat presentable before she went down.

Lucy wondered aloud to herself who could be at the door at that hour, but there was really only _one_ person it could be. She opened the door to see a grinning, rosy haired teen who looked absolutely, one hundred percent awake, quite the contrast to herself. He was like the embodiment of sunlight at that moment if she were being honest.

"Mornin'!" Natsu greeted and she almost felt the need to protect her vision.

"Yeah," Lucy yawned, "Good morning."

Natsu opened his eyes, having shut them to grin at the girl as soon as she opened the door, and almost instantly wished he hadn't. Quickly, and quite severely, he was being affected by the blondes' disheveled, morning appearance. Her clothes were only a blue tank top and short black shorts, creased and folded every which way due to tossing and turning in her sleep, her hair was messy, sticking to her face a little he noticed and her eyes… _huh_?

As he was surveying her appearance, really unintentionally and totally not creepy-like, he noticed her eyes were… swollen?

_Was she… crying…? _He thought to himself- a little astonished at the notion.

_Why would she be…? _

"… ou doing here so… Natsu… Natsu!"

He snapped out of his thoughts as Lucy called out to him, "Hello!" she waved a hand in front of his face, "Are you in there?"

"Y-yeah." He blinked twice and steadied his head, "Sorry. I spaced out for a second."

"I noticed…" she tilted her head slightly to one side, "You alright?"

_She's asking _me_ that?_ He wondered if he was thinking too hard, "Yeah I'm good. Are you?"

Lucy looked a little caught off guard by the question, which he noticed, but she answered with ease, "Of course I'm good. I only asked you because you seemed a little lost there…" she shifted a little uncomfortably, annoyed that her eyes probably gave away her lie but continued, "I was asking you what you're doing here so early?"

"Oh I was in the neighborho-"

"Bull."

"Can't take a joke in the morning, huh?" he laughed and took a mental note of it, "I figured I could get an early start on the work that still needs to be done but I can come back later if you want."

The girl sighed but was actually kind of thankful for his early presence, "No it's alright. You're here now anyway. It'd make no sense in sending you off just so you could come back later." She stepped aside and held an arm out, "Come in."

Plue, recognizing Natsu already, barked and ran around in circles before jumping at him when he entered, scratching his legs to get him to pick him up.

"Oh- _now_ you want me to hold you. Okay I get it." He grinned and scooped the little guy up.

"Just let me go get dressed." Lucy shut the door and walked behind Natsu, "You can do whatever. I'm gonna take a little bit so just make yourself at home."

"Sure, sure." Though there was little to be at home with, he agreed and let her do her thing.

Lucy walked up the stairs, looking at the pair with a small smile as she did, and went into her bathroom to get a shower started. Early mornings showers during the summer had always been one of Lucy's favorite things. It was a nice way to cool down from a hot night and "wash away" all your negative or unwanted thoughts. It was a cheesy way of thinking, she knew, but she'd read it in a book once and it stuck with her. That particular part of showering, Lucy was going to put into great use.

Within six minutes, not wanting to keep her guest waiting too long, she got out and quickly got dressed into an old t-shirt and denim shorts, plain for her usual tastes but she didn't really care at the moment. She applied a little makeup for what it was worth, looking nice was always a concern of hers growing up the way she did, but didn't bother drying her hair as she left her bathroom and went back downstairs. The girl tried to force any lingering "icky" thoughts, because that's exactly what they were, away as she came upon the pair but didn't have to when she saw what was happening.

Lucy exploded into laughter as she took in Natsu chasing Plue, who had somehow gotten his boot, and throwing small profanities every which way as he did, "How did he even get your shoe?" she asked when she got closer.

"The little bastard got it right off my foot!" He replied as he snatched his shoe back and slid it on, "You'd better watch out for this guy- he's got jaws of death."

"Oh please. He's been nothing but a sweetheart to me. He just seems to like messing with you." She walked passed him and asked, "Have you had breakfast yet? I'm gonna make some so tell me now if you do."

"You can cook?" He asked curiously as he followed her into the kitchen, it was a huge thing in his eyes, way too huge for one person.

"Of course I can cook." She got a pan out, luckily all the cookware/utensils were left behind and after a good wash they were just like new, and cracked a smile, "I'm also _very_ good at it. Well, good at making simple things anyway."

It was the truth. Her mother, who'd made amazing, jaw dropping food, had taught her all about how to cook when she was around. Of course, she was still a child then so she only learned how to make the basic things- but with "pizazz" as Layla had said. She still prided herself on what she knew.

"Oh?" Natsu asked, a little excited, "Can you make jalapeno poppers?!"

"Wha- no…? Jalapeno poppers?" She looked confused.

"Oh…" His face fell a little, "That's alright. Just wondering." He moved to sit down at the kitchens bar, the seat still a little dusty, "What're you gonna make?"

"Just some eggs and bacon…"she answered, a little ticked off at how disappointed he was, "Did you want something else?"

A guest's a guest after all.

"Nah that sounds good." He actually already had breakfast at his own house but who was he to step on courtesy?

"Eggs and bacon it is then!" Lucy smiled and went to cooking.

It was always exciting to her to be able to cook for someone other than herself. That last time she'd done it was probably when she was thirteen and one of her maids let her make spaghetti. She practically had to brainwash the lady into thinking it was okay for her to try it-that it wasn't inappropriate for her, as a maid, to do so. As far as she remembered the experience was pleasant.

It took her a few minutes of stirring, flipping, and chatting with her early bird friend before she was done and _damn_ she couldn't help but feel a bit proud of herself. It looked delicious. The teen was a little worried that she might've been somewhat out of practice but it looked like there was nothing to fear.

"Alright," she set a plate down in front of Natsu with a look of anticipation in her eye, "dig in."

He took his fork and scooped a large amount of eggs into his mouth, along with some bacon and chewed vigorously, another display of bad manners according to Lucy, then exclaimed, "It's good! I haven't had eggs like this before though. It's different but good." And that was all he cared about really. As long as it tasted good he didn't care what is was.

Lucy beamed and took a bite herself.

"Y'know this is probably as good as Mira's food…" he spoke to himself as he chowed down.

"Really?" Lucy hadn't ever tasted the woman's food but somehow it seemed like a huge compliment.

"Yeah really." He replied with a grin, "All you gotta do now is learn how to make some poppers."

Lucy ignored the statement and wondered idly, "Hmm… maybe I could get a job as a part time cook somewhere…?" The issue of her having to work soon was pressing harder on her mind the more she spent trying to fix the house up.

"You're lookin' for a job?" He asked with a mouthful of food.

"Well, I guess so." She moved her wet bangs behind her ear, "I'm not hurting for money _yet_ but it's something I need to think about. Why? You know a place that's hiring?"

Natsu finished his second breakfast in record time and set the plate aside, "We don't exactly say we're hiring or anything but Fairy Tail's always welcoming people who wanna work."

"Oh yeah!" Lucy momentarily abandoned her food and questioned excitedly, "What is Fairy Tail exactly? I don't think I ever asked…"

The teen grinned at her and cracked his knuckles in odd preparation for the answer. He loved it when people asked him about Fairy Tail. It was basically his life- or better worded it had given him his life- and when people were genuinely curious about the place it gave him a sense of pride. He could go on all day about how great it was and how cool its members were if he had the chance, though he knew that would eventually get annoying, but just getting to share a little bit of what had made him who he was made him feel so very happy. Natsu was always thankful for opportunities to greaten Fairy Tail's name and reputation.

"Okay, the answer might be a little long but bear with me alright?" He set his elbows on the counter and waited for her reply of "Of course." before he went on, "You've been there already so I don't have to explain what the place looks like but essentially it's an odd jobs business."

"Odd jobs?" She questioned, her voice rising a little higher toward then end.

"Yep. Or regular ones- but most of those are local. The odder jobs," he laughed at his own joke, "are most likely the ones you need to travel for."

"Wait you get jobs from other places than here?" Lucy was beginning to wonder why she'd never heard of them- especially considering she'd been in the business world for so long.

"Uh-huh. Like take Cana for example, Cana's a friend," he explained when he saw her confusion, "she does tarot card readings. She's actually pretty well known amongst those kinds of… people or whatever. They're always spot on apparently. People request her all the time. One rich guy even paid for her to go all the way across the frickin' country."

"So… you have to be requested for jobs?"

"Nope. People just do that sometimes if a member's known for something." He hoped he was explaining properly, "Mira models, Gajeel's really good with making metal stuff, Cana, like I said, does card readings, etc."

"Oh okay I think I get it." Lucy leaned backwards and set her plate on top of his when she was done, "So you can be requested for things or just choose to accept a job that asks for no specific person?"

"Yeah!" He grinned, happy he explained right after all, "We have a website and phone and stuff- which is where most of the long distance jobs come from, but we also have a wall." His smiled extended at the mention of it.

"Yeah I saw that wall." The blonde thought back to when she entered the warehouse for the first time. "It was huge."

"Right?" He agreed with her, glad she acknowledged the size of it too, "Locals will run the jobs by Mira or the old man, the owner of the place, and they'll put up flyers and posters. Then we get to choose what jobs to accept, if any, and get to keep seventy percent of the payment. Some of it has to go to the warehouse to keep it running of course, no one minds that. We get a lot of jobs so money's never been a big issue for us."

Lucy practically had stars in her eyes. She knew she liked the place, its first impression had left quite the mark on her, but now that she had a proper explanation of how it worked it was brilliant! The one side of her that knew how businesses were supposed work and really thrive was actually very impressed. The concept of freely letting people accept jobs that you _knew_ were going to come in was really smart and something the world needed more of quite frankly.

"So… do they accept anyone? Like, I don't need any particular skill set do I? Is there training…?" All she really had going for her at the moment were her smarts and sense of how to run things so that they could profit…

She mentally cursed those years in school that seemed to teach her everything but what she needed.

"You wanna join?!" He jumped out of his seat and grabbed her hands in excitement. New members were another thing Natsu really liked.

Lucy thought for a second. The idea was really good, amazing even. She could work whenever she wanted, however much she wanted, and still manage to keep a stable income- something she learned was very important. On the other hand, the only thing that was holding her back was that the owner was sure to ask for her information. It's not like she could just join in the business without providing official information and she'd avoided telling people her last name for a reason. A _very_ good reason.

But it'd have to be done eventually. Even if she were to work somewhere else they'd ask her the same thing so she might as well choose a place she liked.

"Yeah!" She grinned and he replied with one of his own, the toothy one she'd seen three times now.

"Awesome!" Natsu held his other hand out, waiting for a high five, and she gave into the action, unknowingly letting her smile turn into a slightly less "ladylike" one.

And just like that Lucy forgot every little thing that had been bothering her earlier that morning.

Once they were done talking and washing the dishes, Lucy made him help saying you should never let bacon grease sit for too long, they went back to work on her house. Lucy had some cleaning left to do, mostly mopping floors/washing off layers upon layers of dust that'd settled on the houses' surfaces, and Natsu still had some other things that needed repairing. The two went to their own tasks for about three hours and when Lucy finally finished cleaning every part of the house that needed it, she went into her backyard to see what Natsu was up to.

Honestly, she just wanted to go and see about joining Fairy Tail already but she knew to be patient.

The blonde walked out her backdoor and saw him sitting at the far end of her deck, taking his scarf off and setting it down beside him, "Wow… you actually take that off?" she lightly teased and made her presence known to the teen.

"It's not exactly glued onto my body." He turned to look at her as she sat beside him and dangled her feet off the decks edge, sticking her legs in between the wooden railing.

"What?!" She replied in mock astonishment.

"I just like wearin' it all the time. It's one of my treasures." He spoke truthfully, "But it _can_ get really hot…"

This time Lucy _was_ a little shocked. She didn't imagine guys had "treasures". The one's she'd met over the years hadn't really given her the impression of "treasuring". Which now that she thought about it, they probably weren't good examples of regular boys. "Well it is summer… Is it so important that you have to wear it every day?"

It was an innocent question but Natsu felt a small frown appear on his face. It was important to him… that was for sure. But in what way- he didn't know. Some day's it was a nice reminder of Igneel and the years they'd spent together, but others it seemed more like an excuse. For what? He didn't know.

_Again with the "I don't know"s…. _He thought a bit sourly to himself.

"Yeah." He replied simply. It wasn't a lie.

"Hmm. Just make sure you don't get heat stroke. That really sucks." She didn't really understand his reason, though it was most likely similar to a girl wearing a necklace she got from her grandmother or something, and continued, "Did you finish up out here?"

Grateful for the change in topic he replied, "I did. You're railing was a bitch to fix but I got it done. It's probably sturdier than it was originally."

She looked over at him to see a proud grin displayed on his face, "That so?"

Thinking mischievously to herself, Lucy stood up and began lifting herself onto the railing, "Let's test it out."

"Oi, what the hell are you doing?!" He got up when she stood straight on the wooden beam, "You're gonna fall!"

The blonde gave him an "oh please" look, "I'm not gonna fall. Don't worry." She spoke as she began walking as if she were on a balance beam, "I took gymnastics for a few years. This'll be easy."

"Okay great good for you." He walked beside her, becoming more and more worried, "But this isn't one of those things you balance on or whatever."

"It's basically the same thing." She stuck her arms out for more control, "It's fine if I fall anyway. The deck's not _that_ high. Now quiet! I'm concentrating."

"Alright fine." Natsu gave up on convincing her and just watched, "Don't get mad if you end up on your ass."

The blonde secretly stuck her tongue out at him, a childish act she knew, but fitting for what she was doing. It seemed she was in the clear as she made her way closer to the end of the railing, where she'd jump back onto the deck, but an unforeseen force of nature called "Plue" had seen this small spectacle and ran out the open back door, barking like the curious pup he was. The sudden noise startled Lucy and sure enough Natsu had predicted correctly.

"Aaah!" The girl let a scream out as she lost her balance and fell of the railing, landing harshly on the grassy earth some ways down.

"Shit!" Natsu cursed and bounded down the steps, hearing Lucy let a profanity or two out herself.

"Are you okay?! What happened to "_I took gymnastics for a few years_"?!" He spoke urgently as he came upon the girl, who indeed ended up on her ass, "Damn it, I told you you were gonna…"

The rosy haired teen stopped talking when he saw her shoulders shaking.

_Shit shit shit shit- is she crying?!_

He was about to squat down and check, unprepared to deal with her tears, but didn't have to when she lifted her head and let a loud laugh out.

"Hahaha!" she continued laughing, "Oh man that hurt…"

"Wha…?" Natsu was dumfounded.

"Damn…" The girl lifted her hand, silently asking for help in getting up, and he took it- lifting her with ease, "Hahahaha, you sounded worried there for a second." She teased, letting him know all was fine- though her leg _was_ throbbing a little.

He still didn't know how to respond to her reaction.

"Plue! You scared me!" She called up to the dog who was sticking its head out between the railings, wagging his tail.

Natsu just watched her as she mumbled to herself, brushing her legs off and adjusting her ponytail, only speaking when she looked up at him curiously, "Okay. You're definitely _really_ weird." He declared her one step above "just weird" and moved to pull a leaf out of her hair- slightly shocked he did so.

Lucy couldn't even register the nice action because of her exaggerated response to his words, "_What_? That's twice now you've said I'm weird! I'm not! What makes me weird?!" She was genuinely becoming concerned about it.

"Whoa hold on, it's not a _bad_ thing." he clarified. "Why would I be insulting you?" Really why would he?

She huffed and swept her bangs to the side, "I don't know how _you_ use the word "weird" but most people tend to use it in a bad way."

"Well I don't know about _those_ guys but weird doesn't equal insult to me so stop takin' it so badly." He said his piece and spoke again before turning to walk back up the stairs, "You sure you're alright?"

"Y-yeah…" she answered and followed him up.

_Is it a compliment then? What does he mean by it?_ She wondered, a bit embarrassed by her reaction but let it go. He seemed more a puzzle that she originally thought.

They both stepped back onto the deck and Plue ran up to Lucy, completely unaware of what he accidentally caused. Lucy smiled down at the puppy, not blaming him one bit.

"Since I didn't get to finish talking before you went and fell off your deck," now that he wasn't worried that she'd broken herself he found it a little funny, "let me continue where I left off."

"Yes, by all means. Do so." She replied bitterly and made a face at his laughing. Only she was allowed to laugh at her mess ups.

"As I was saying," he walked back to where his scarf was, picked it up, and quickly put it back on, "I finished your railing, _and_ I finished fixing that damn floor board in your hallway that kept trippin' me."

Lucy giggled.

"It isn't _funny_. Damn thing almost killed me a few times." He thought back to the three times his life flashed before his eyes and continued, "All that's left really is to fix your windows up- help them open again, then let you live in the place and see if there's anything else you come across that needs tending to."

Lucy nodded, thankful in a lot of ways for the help she received and said, "I can't believe it got done so fast. I was expecting it to take at _least_ five days."

"Yeah tell me about it." Natsu replied to her as he walked back inside, getting a little desperate for water, "I guess it only _looked_ bad. The house is actually really sturdy."

_It better be for what my father paid for it…_ Lucy thought to herself as she followed him in, shutting the door behind her when Plue ran inside, "Really, I can't begin to thank you all enough. I would've never been able to do this by myself."

Natsu thought for a moment while he got a glass, they were cleaned by Erza the other night, and got some much needed water- he was really feelin' his thirst now, "Don't see why you thought you had to." He raised a brow, "You didn't try to hire anyone before comin' to us?"

"Uh… No." She replied a bit sheepish but decided to be a little more honest, "I thought I had to do it all myself for personal reasons but it turned out to be too much for one person to handle…"

Natsu kept chugging his water and finished with a loud "ah" sound, promptly turning toward Lucy with a grin, "Well you got friends who'll help you for free so you don't have to do things on your own if you don't want to."

The teen smiled at his own words, a little proud of himself for helping someone out so greatly, and for the first time Lucy really did think of those three as her friends.

She'd actually made real friends. And while it might seem like a mediocre achievement to most, friends were never something Lucy had the luxury to make. Though she had many other things she knew people wished upon a star for, actual friends, who as he'd said would help each other out, were one of the only things she'd really wanted.

It was a warm feeling.

"So?" Natsu set his glass down in her sink, giving her a chance to discreetly blink back her tears, and said, "You wanna go join Fairy Tail or what?"

"Yes!" She grinned widely with excitement and added, "You really think they'll let me join?"

"For sure." He guaranteed, "The old man seemed to like you so there shouldn't be a problem." Though the geezer liking her wasn't exactly a _great_ thing. The man could be somewhat of a perv sometimes but he decided to withhold that information.

The blonde nodded and set her expression into a confident one but as they began to walk out she suddenly remembered something, "Is there a place I can buy a mattress?"

"You don't even have a bed?" He deadpanned, wondering just how unprepared the girl had been to move in.

"_No_. That's why I asked."

"What've you been sleeping on then?"

"A sleeping bag-but that doesn't matter!" She continued when she saw him begin to say something, most likely a tease, "Just- is there a place or not?"

"Yeah of course there's a place." He replied as she shut the door and locked it, "What, you think everyone in this town sleeps on their floors?"

"You know what I meant!" Lucy spoke and walked ahead of him.

"You say that a lot."

"And you beat around the bush a lot."

"What does that ev-"

"Let's just go!"

"Okay, fine…" He stuck his hands in his pockets and walked slightly behind the girl, the two of them continuing their lighthearted bickering most of the way to Fairy Tail.

* * *

"Hey shrimp." Gajeel appeared behind the small, blue haired teen, taking her attention away from the book she had in her hands, "I'm gonna head out and start workin' on that job. I'll swing by your place later to help ya' finish that library cleaning." He scratched his nose, an action, Levy knew, that he only did when he was a little embarrassed to say something.

"Alright, I'll see you later then. Thank you!" She beamed up at him, hoping to ease his nervousness despite loving seeing the "tough" man look a little flustered.

"Y-yeah. Don't go cross eyed readin' that book." He replied simply yet gruffly, and turned to walk out of the warehouse.

She couldn't help but stare after him.

For a moment she got lost in her usual thoughts, wondering just what they were to each other exactly, but decided to stop that train before it left the station. Levy would always go round and round in her head when she let those thoughts run rampant. "What are we to each other?" "Are we just friends?" "Does he even like me that way?" "What if this never progresses beyond what we are now?" She sighed and tried to go back to reading her book, seeing the words but not really taking them in.

_Geez! Quit it! _She scolded herself for acting like a hopeless damsel. The girl had already decided what they had was more than enough for the moment and trying to think about it any further would only turn her into a mushy pile of overcomplicated thoughts and feelings.

"Mira!" She called out to the pink dress wearing bartender who'd just finished tending to a table, "Can I get some fries please!"

The white haired woman walked over with a smile, knowing what it meant when Levy wanted fries, "Sure thing. You want some melted cheese to the side right?"

"You know me too well." The teen laughed and was about to speak again until she witnessed Mira's expression change almost immediately as she spotted two new people entering the warehouse.

"Levy, Levy!" She bent down and tried to point discreetly at the pair, "Look! That's the girl we were talking about yesterday! The one who came in looking for Natsu!"

"Oh?" Levy, thankful for something to get her mind off previous matters, eagerly turned where Mira was pointing, "Where, where?"

"There!" Her whispers were becoming strained, "The blonde girl!"

"I can't se-AH!" Her eyes finally were set upon the pair who looked like they were laughing, "Whoa! She's gorgeous!"

"Right, right?" Mira smiled and agreed with Levy, "They've been hanging around together quite a bit." She mentioned suggestively.

"It's only been a few days Mira… and from what you and Erza were saying he's just been helping her get situated and knowledgeable of the town." Levy reasoned, knowing how teasing of that nature can really get on someone's nerves, but still- from what she little she'd seen of the two she could see why Mira was acting the way she was.

"I know." The woman's face took on a soft look, "I just thought it'd be very nice for Natsu to finally have someone considering..." She trailed off and Levy knew exactly what she meant, "Really, there's only so much _we_ can do for him anyway- oh they're coming over here!"

Mira stood up from her crouched position and waved at the pair, quickly noticing Lucy had a large bruise on her leg, "What happened?" she expressed her concern once they reached them.

"She fell off her deck trying to bal-"

"Nothing! It was nothing! Just a little accident!" Lucy wasn't about to let him embarrass her in front of a stranger again, the stranger this time being Levy.

"If you say so…" Mira let it slide.

"Anyway," Natsu spoke and reached to adjust his scarf, "is the old man in? I need to talk to him."

"Yes. He's up in his office right now. Said he needed to make a call to a friend of his." She stuck her thumb out and pointed behind her, Lucy's eyes traveling up the warehouses stairs and getting lost when the rest of it was kept from her vision.

"Really? Rare for him to be in the office this soon."

The two of them kept on with their conversation and Levy spoke up, aiming her voice at Lucy, "Hi!"

The blonde, a little startled by her sudden greeting stepped around Natsu to better see the girl when she spoke again, "You're Lucy right? I've been hearing quite a bit about you for the past few days."

"Ah… Sorry about that." She gave a sheepish smile, "I'm Lucy. You are?"

For a reason Levy knew but was too embarrassed to admit, she was feeling a little… unequal to the teen in front of her. Especially in a certain… _area_.

Curse her lack of womanly charm…

"I'm Levy, it's nice to meet you!"

Lucy replied in kind, making sure to keep good airs, as she'd been taught to when meeting new people, but very quickly that went flying out the window when she saw the book lying on the wooden table, "Wait a second…" She looked a little closer and gasped, "Is that "Willow's Weeper"?!"

"You know of it?" She asked curiously, always extremely welcoming to people who ask about her books.

"Of course!" Lucy replied excitedly as she sat down next to Levy, "I thought it wasn't supposed to come out until next month?!"

"Oh it isn't! I'm actually friends with the author and she gave me an early copy in return for helping her out."

"You're friends with-! Helping her out?" She couldn't decide what question to ask first.

"Yeah, she hired me about a year ago to help with research for one of her upcoming books!" She turned her body to better face the thrilled teen, "I told her I was looking forward to this the most when we met and she ended up giving me one of the first copies!" Levy was practically squealing.

"I'm so jealous! Wait hold on-" she took on a solemn face, "How was it?"

Thinking the question was a serious matter as well, Levy also took on a solemn expression, "I haven't finished it, I'm about half way through it, but so far…" she was enjoying the anticipation in the blondes eye, "it's _soooo_ good!"

Lucy sighed, "Oh thank goodness. I've been looking forward to it ever since it was announced! I couldn't fathom it being boring."

"Me either!" Levy agreed and went on, "What other books have you-"

"Natsu!"

Their conversation, as well as Mira and Natsu's, was suddenly cut off by a loud voice coming from upstairs.

"Yeah old man?!"

"Get up here! Ten seconds!"

The voice disappeared and Lucy wondered if Natsu had gotten into some kind of trouble. At least, it'd sounded that way by the man's tone.

"Alright, alright. Gotta see what the elderly man wants." He was about to walk off but remembered what Lucy was there for, "Oh yeah. I'll tell him about you when I go up and then he'll probably want me to send you in so sit tight."

The blonde nodded, knowing boredom wasn't in store for her with the girl she'd just befriended. There were still a lot more questions she wanted to ask. Knowing people who liked the same reading material as her had been a rarity and everyone knows not having someone to talk to about the things you like sucks. Lucy wasn't about to let that chance slide, though her eyes did follow Natsu's back until he disappeared from view.

The scarfed teen walked up the stairs, at a normal pace knowing Makarov hadn't really meant he had to be there in ten seconds, and made his way to the old man's office. It was a huge room toward the back of the second level, half of the warehouse had been turned into another floor, that had a seriously nice view of the city, sea, and a little further off, the small cliffside. He entered the office to find the man sitting on top of his desk, for some reason he always liked to sit on everything but chairs, with a serious expression on his face.

"Hey old man!" he greeted him with a smile, "Guess what?"

"What?"

"You remember Lucy right?" Natsu plopped himself down on one of the leather chairs in front of the desk, "Seems like she was gonna need a job soon and I told her about us and she got really excited. Says she wants to join!"

Makarov raised a brow, "Hm. I wouldn't mind that." He'd welcome it actually. "Did you bring her here?"

"Yeah. She's waitin' down by the bar right now." The teen sat up a little and placed his elbows on his knees, "So? What'd you want me up here for?"

Makarov sighed.

It probably wasn't a good idea for him to do what he was about to do, but _unfortunately_ he was going to do it. Goddammit he was going to have to do it. Bringing this particular topic up always ended badly. Not in fights, or shouting, but Natsu would go into complete shutdown. Claiming it was "alright". That he "doesn't really care". In all honestly Makarov would _rather_ he shout or get angry. At least then the boy would've actually reacted to the topic. Instead, he would deny it so fully that he probably even convinced himself he was reacting normally. Really, what Makarov wouldn't give for Natsu to just get _mad_ for once.

He sighed again.

He was about to bring up Igneel.

* * *

**A/N:** Never in my fic writing life have i been writing chapters this long..._?_ Hope you liked this one as well! I thought a flashback would be nice to contrast Lucy's family then and now. I brought back their issues from their intro chapters, they're not gone _yet_. Natsu and his "I don't know."s and Lucy with her "I shouldn't be feeling like this."s.

Oh and I really love Levy/Lucy broship so I introduced them as fast friends, bonding over a book of course. As you can tell there's going to be some other pairings included here and there. I'd really love to try and include most of them- or at least the one's I really like- throughout the story. :))

Igneel's gonna get talked about next time and some emotional things are gonna be brought up. Thanks for reviewing! It really gives me an extra boost in my want to write, as it does for most people. I really, really appreciate it!


	7. Chapter 7

"Before I start…" Makarov spoke carefully, "I'm telling you this because I thought you deserved to know. It wouldn't sit well with me if I knew and you didn't."

Natsu's expression displayed his confusion. He knew the old man hadn't been in a good mood, the way his brows and mouth were set told him that, but the teen had figured it was something _he_ did. He thought it was just gonna be another scolding… "Okay…?" He replied slowly, unsure and not really liking the fact that he didn't know where the conversation was heading.

Makarov eyed the boy, searching his face and was sad he was _probably_ about to ruin his day, "It's about Igneel."

He spoke and immediately there was a change in air around Natsu. Though it was physically impossible for Makarov to see the air _actually_ change, it was true that the air was in fact, different. The boy's face hardened in the slightest, his gaze tightened, and his shoulders straightened out. All of those the signs Makarov knew well. They signaled to him that the boy was extremely aware and very ready to play off his feelings toward the words that were about to come out of Makarov's mouth. In other words, a wall had gone up.

Natsu only nodded for him to go on.

"I have a friend who runs a general store in a small town in the upper part of the country." He spoke and scratched his partially bald head, knowing there wasn't going to be a reply until he was finished, "I was talkin' to him the other day and somehow he brought up your father's name, said he was new in town. I asked about it of course and he said from what the man told him he was planning to stay there for about a week."

Natsu hadn't moved. His face was the textbook definition of calm.

Makarov sighed, "I stopped asking there. I didn't want to know anything more until I told you. I know this topic is… _sensitive_ to you despite the many times you say it's not and it wouldn't be right for me to be the one to ask all the questions without your approval. Now, getting to the point," he looked Natsu in the eyes and leaned forward a little, "I wanted to ask you… if you wanted to look into this further. I don't know many Igneel's, so I wouldn't know if that could be him, but it wouldn't hurt to ask my friend about it or even go take a loo-"

"It's alright."

The old man shut his eyes at the boy's words. He knew it was coming. He knew it and yet those words still gave him a feeling of a hole forming in his stomach.

"I've said it before gramps." Natsu chuckled, "I don't need to know where he's at and it's not my life's mission to find him and chew him out or get a heartfelt reunion." He stood up and brushed his pants off, just a fill in action, "He probably had his reas-"

"If you say he had his reasons I swear on my own grave I'll-"

"Okay, okay." Natsu raised his hands and cut him off, "I won't say it... but it's true. So to answer your question, no, I don't wanna look into that. I don't feel like travelling. You know long distance travel makes me feel sick…" He ended his sentence on a light note and walked back to the door, "Oh yeah, you want me to send Lucy in? She's real excited to join."

"Yeah. Go ahead."

"Alright." He replied calmly and left, shutting the door with no added force.

Makarov wanted to break something. Preferably Igneel's nose.

_"He probably had his reasons"... bullshit! _

Now he knew he shouldn't hate a man he knew nothing about, and what Natsu said _did_ have some stock to it in a way. He may have had reasons he couldn't care for the boy but under _no_ circumstances do you just _leave_ your child alone in the woods to fend for themselves. Makarov didn't care if the devil himself had told him to do it; you do _not_ abandon your child. That was something he couldn't forgive no matter what. If the man ended up having a legitimate reason, it still wouldn't be enough. If he even saved his life at some point, _it still wouldn't be enough_. He'd seen too many children without parents to be able to overlook something as irresponsible and low as that.

Makarov would've believed Natsu were fine with it if he _knew_ he wasn't. It would've been easy to believe that the boy had gotten over it if it were _true_. It happens all the time. People get over past traumas and move on with their lives in a healthy manner, but in many other cases they end up just like Natsu had- making excuses for the person who did them wrong.

The man knew Natsu was a strong person. The boy knew who he was and didn't let anyone try and tell him otherwise. He wasn't so easily swayed or beaten down. He'd even broken a bone or two and still came home from the hospital with a smile on his face, laughing his head off about it. He knew his rights from his wrongs and put that knowledge to use daily and yes, Makarov knew in his heart that Natsu wasn't a weak little boy but an emotionally and physically strong person.

But in the end, he couldn't help but notice the abandoned child that was hidden away inside the nineteen year olds eyes.

_That turned out just great… _Makarov thought wryly.

He'd hoped maybe Natsu would grab at the chance to see his foster father again- though the old man himself had his own reasons for wanting him to go, obviously. He thought maybe if the teen saw him again he'd be able to… oh he didn't know… He just wanted something, anything to happen that finally let that god-awful load off of Natsu's shoulders.

Makarov got off his desk and went to sit in his chair, a rarity. He was about to have official business to attend to and he couldn't very well do it from sitting atop his workspace. Well, he could but he wanted to keep at least a little formality to the girl's interview. Though, it wasn't really an interview to be honest. He only called it that due to some "rules" or whatever.

Natsu, who made it downstairs in record time but slowed down once he was visible to people, made his way over to Lucy who was still gushing about books with Levy and tapped her on the shoulder, a smile on his face, "The old man's ready for you."

Lucy was a little startled by the sudden touch, having been completely absorbed in her conversation. She looked to Levy and stood up after the girl gave a nod for her to go ahead, replying, "Great! This is exciting!" she grinned and smoothed her hair out.

"Yeah." He replied a little too plainly.

Lucy didn't take notice of it but both Mira, who hadn't had any customers to tend to, and Levy knew that wasn't his usual tone.

"Where is it?" The blonde asked.

"It's up the stairs," he began directing with his hand, "and down that long hallway. It's the door at the very end. Can't miss it."

"Okay." She smiled, "Thank you."

"S'okay. Just as long as you're not a criminal or anything it'll go great."

"I'm no criminal." Lucy deadpanned.

"That's exactly what a criminal would sa-"

"I'm going."

Natsu laughed dryly as she walked off, muttering to herself of her non-criminal ways, and smiled a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

He needed to get out for a second. The warehouse was suddenly feeling a little too stuffy for some reason.

"Oi." He turned to Mira and Levy who were chatting and gained they're attention, "I need to go do somethin' real quick but I should be back by the time they're done in there. If I'm not just tell her to wait for me will you?"

"Yeah, sure." Levy answered with a nod and Mira gave a "mhm" sound, both a little confused at the sudden request.

"Thanks." He replied and swiftly turned to leave the warehouse, heading out the back instead of the main doors.

"I wonder what that was about…" Mira questioned, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Who knows?" Levy grabbed at one of her fries and placed it in her mouth, swallowing before speaking again, "He probably got scolded by the boss again."

"You think? He sounded a little odd…" The white haired woman took a seat in front of Levy, "He usually looks pouty when he gets scolded."

Levy raised her brow but said nothing.

"Maybe I'm overthinking it…" She placed her chin in her palm, "He seemed normal enough with Lucy so I'll leave it alone I suppose-Ah!" Mira noticed a customer sit down at the bar and shot up, "Did you need anything else Levy?"

The teen smiled and waved a hand, "No, I'm good Mira. Thank you for the fries!"

"My pleasure." She replied and walked off to tend to her new customer, a bright smile almost as white as her hair on her head gracing her face.

* * *

Lucy anxiously walked down the hall Natsu had spoken of, twisted the ends of her wavy hair, it was a little wavy due to her not blow drying it earlier that morning, and bit down on her bottom lip. She was _nervous_ of all things. It was a little unbelievable to her. The teen had been borderline interrogated by her father's acquaintances about her home life, things she'd been learning, when she'd take over, and of course the ever famous questions that would allow them some insight as to how to into get his favor, which she could never answer, and now, as she walked down a very _normal_ hallway to be interviewed for a _normal_ job, she was getting _very_ nervous.

It was most likely due to the fact that this time it really _mattered_ to her that she do well. Before, she just had no other choice than to be perfect. Having the "smile for daddy's important business friends" mindset drilled into you sucks any and all fun right out meeting those people and really takes away the desire to want to comply- though in the end she always did. But with this, Lucy really felt the _want_, the _drive_, to do well. It was exhilarating but a little terrifying at the same time.

_Well… Natsu did say as long as I wasn't a criminal it should be fine…_ She tried to reassure herself before the knocked on the tall, wooden door that was now in front of her.

"Come in." She heard a muffled voice sound from the room and she did as told.

"Hello." She greeted him perfectly, smile and all, immediately going into her "meeting dad's friends" routine.

Makarov caught this immediately though, he knew when people were only trying to make a good impression. Not that there was anything shameful about it- he just preferred people to be their normal selves around him. "You don't have to be formal." The old man grinned widely,"Come in, come in. Sit down."

Lucy mentally cursed her habits.

"Uh- I wanted to thank you for the other day." She spoke as she sat down (unknowingly in the seat Natsu had been in just earlier).

"For what?" Makarov asked curiously, setting a few papers down in front of him.

The blonde tuck her hair behind her ear, a little embarrassed, "I probably would've chickened out that first time I came… Just before you showed up I was about to leave but you all but pushed me inside- not that I found you pushy!" she corrected herself, "I mean, I'm grateful for you convincing me to go in."

The elderly man let out a boisterous laugh, "You don't have to thank me for that! I was just curious about that pretty little lady who was starin' at our sign so intensely, so I walked over!"

Lucy couldn't help but redden a bit his calling her pretty. It was funny how compliments never used to have an effect on her before coming there and now she was really wanting to take them to heart.

"So?" He set his elbows on his desk, "I hear you wanna join us?"

The teen sat up a little straighter and took a deep breath, "Mhm. When Natsu told me about it this morning I was really _very_ impressed. The idea of an odd jobs business was always great in my own opinion, but what you have here is amazing. It's great that your people can accept jobs when they need them, and from what I can tell jobs come in very regularly so you're never short on them. It seems that it's a huge help to your town as well! Treating your own towns needs as important is very well thought out, not only community wise but financially as well. You're local businesses never have to be short on staff, they can get fill-in's from here, I assume, and even better, your members get to experience a wide variety of employers. Natsu told me you accept local jobs as well as jobs from out of town and it shocked me a little that you're so well known! It's smart that you have people here with special skills that are in demand, but also regular Joes that can take on any other kind of job! Your business is overall really impressive and I'd love to join!"

Lucy ended her small speech with an almost visible sparkle in her eyes. Not only did she not notice that she'd slipped into her old talking habits, she spoke as if she were discussing stocks with a suit clad man, but she had also moved closer to the edge of her seat out of excitement. If she scooted an inch closer she was most likely going to fall out of it.

Makarov, for lack of a better word, was stunned.

Never in his life had someone complimented his business so vigorously and seriously and this was a _teenager_ he was speaking to. Not that they were incapable of such conversations of course, but his brats had never spoken a word like hers _ever_. "Really very impressed." and "-financially as well." were things he heard from the sixty-two year old mayor… So, back to the word that didn't really describe his shock, he was stunned, but also very curious.

"Well, thank you." Despite him being obviously dumbfounded, he was actually touched by her words. It always made his heart swell a little when people praised him for doing a good job with the business. It'd been passed onto him by a friend, since passed away, so hearing those kind of words gave him a little more pride than the day before. "I'd like for you to join too." He grinned at the girl, chuckling at how her face lit up, "But of course before we move onto that there are things I have to ask you. It's the "law" so I got no choice."

Lucy face, that was previously glowing, scrunched up.

The one part she was dreading had come upon her.

She'd already given into having to tell him "that" but the girl hoped he wouldn't have to pry any further.

"All I need is your full name," he began counting with his fingers, "phone number, address, date of birth, and," he gave a wide, toothy grin, "one good reason you want to join Fairy Tail."

She raised her brow at the last one but her confusion over the lack of information needed won out her next question, "That's all?"

"Yeah… I don't like havin' to go through all that paper work," he had a slightly pained expression on at the thought of it, "so I looked up what the minimum amount of information I needed to hire someone was and sure enough it isn't much. Just the way I like it. Of course the number and address are so I or Mira can contact you but so long as you're not some active criminal, I don't need anything else."

_What's with all this criminal talk? _The blonde thought, a bit annoyed people thought she could be a possible felon.

"Alright then, is there a form I need to fill or…?"

"I got it." He stuck his hand up to reveal a pen and readied it at the papers on his desk, "I'll be sure to document it properly later. Don't worry."

Lucy took in a breath and let it out slowly before giving her number, address, and birth date to the elderly man, purposely withholding the last bit of information he needed, hoping he would forget about it. It was a fruitless, childish hope but she just _really, really_ didn't want anyone to know. There weren't enough "really"s in the world for her to express how badly she didn't want to say it.

"Okay…" He trailed off, scribbling words onto his paper, "I need a last name now."

The old man looked up after finishing his sentence and saw the discomfort on the girls face. He'd seen many a people who hadn't wanted to share their full names for one reason or another and spoke again, trying to reassure her, "Don't worry. Everything your givin' me is gonna stay between us if you want it to. I won't let anyone see or tell anyone so there's no need to hesitate. I get people who don't want to give me their names all the time."

The girl sighed.

_It's now or never I guess…_

"Heartfilia. Lucy Heartfilia."

Makarov almost had heart attack.

"Hold on, hold on…" he spoke after he was done choking on her words, "_Heartfilia?_ As in one of the wealthiest families in the country Heartfilia?" The name itself was one of the first things you hear when entering the world of managing your own business. People some way or another would always end up gossiping about or aspiring to the Heartfilia name. It didn't matter what kind of business you ran, the popular topic of how Jude Heartfilia created his fortune was a story most people were dying to tell and achieve.

"Y… Yes…" She replied reluctantly.

"Wh-" The old man was searching for words he couldn't find but didn't need to when Lucy spoke again.

"Please!" She begged her soon to be boss, "Please just… don't tell anyone. I really don't want to be... _associated_... with that name right now. I knew I had to tell you if I wanted to work here, and lying was out of the question, so being honest my only option."

"What on earth would you need to work here for?" He didn't mean to pry but when the country's wealthiest man's daughter arrives on your doorstep looking for a job, questions are gonna spill out.

Lucy grimaced, telling him her name was one thing, a thing she hadn't wanted to do in the first place, but informing him of _why_ she left home was just not going to happen. She'd take not getting the job over gushing out her sob story to a man she didn't know. It would only make him feel uncomfortable… "I left home for reasons I can't get into," she observed his expression at her words and continued, "and now that I'm settled into my home I need work. I'm really sorry but I can't say any more than that… I just-"

"That's okay." Makarov cut her off, beginning to understand a little, "Whatever you want to tell me is up to you. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I already have all the legal junk I need so anything more would be pushin' it." He gave her a wink, letting her know it was okay and she breathed a sigh of relief.

He would've said he couldn't imagine what would make her leave that rich life style, but he could actually think of quite a few things. From the look in her eyes when she spoke of leaving home, he could tell something must've been awful. It was the same look he'd seen in all those kids. It broke his heart a little to see it in yet another person.

"Since that's out of the way-" He got up after pulling a camera out of what seemed like thin air and said, "It's time to get picture!"

"A picture?" She questioned as he came around his desk to stand in front of her.

"It's gonna be for your card. Everyone gets a sort of ID card when they join." he explained as he turned the camera on, "It's mostly to present to the job requesters so they know who you are."

"Oh." Lucy replied simply. Another smart idea.

"Alright, smile like you just accepted your dream job!"

The girl let out a laugh and Makarov, instead of waiting for her to gather a "proper smile", snapped a photo in that instant. It was the way he did all of his ID picture taking, or at least he _tried_ to do it that way.. Some people, he found out, don't laugh or smile very much.

"W-Wait I didn't-!"

"It's fine, it's fine!" He insisted with a hearty laugh and walked back around to his chair, "The card should be done in a few days. It won't have your name on it, just certification that you're from Fairy Tail." The man set his camera down and looked back up at the girl, "There's still one more thing I need from you."

"Hm?"

"You haven't given me your "one good reason" for wanting to join." Makarov replied.

It was something he always asked for. It was mostly for getting a feel for the person he was hiring. To be honest it didn't matter what _kind_ of reason they had, if it was only because they needed the money that was fine with him. If they gave him a one-thousand word letter he'd find it a little annoying, but that was also fine with him. He didn't care what kind of reason they had, so long as it wasn't harmful in anyway, but whatever it was it needed to be their true reason. One thing he couldn't tolerate in his business was dishonesty.

But, from what he gathered, she didn't seem like that type of girl.

"Oh, right." Lucy titled her head slightly, searching for the right words.

It would've been fine to say she just needed a job, but somehow that seemed too… well, it didn't feel like it covered her reasoning completely. There was something about the place, her first time there as she said before really left an impression on her, that made her feel… at home? It felt comfy and fun. Those three things being something she hadn't felt in a long time.

For a few more moments she tried to gather her words and then said, "It feels nice." Her phrase was simple but it seemed right, "When I walked in, that was the first thing I felt. You all seemed so happy and just _seeing_ that made me feel the same way. Of course, I do need money," she smiled a bit sheepishly, "but I thought if I had to work somewhere for someone it should be at a place I like and with people I can enjoy myself with."

Lucy felt pretty confident in her answer, there were no lies hidden in there, and when she saw the old man grin, reaching up all the way to his eyes, she couldn't help but feel like she'd done good.

"Very well!" He laughed. That girl was way more than he expected. "You're now a full blown member of Fairy Tail Odd Jobs! You're gonna have to wait until you get your card to accept jobs but other than that you're all set missy."

"Thank you!" Lucy beamed and stood up to shake the man's hand.

"No, thank you." He took her hand shake with vigor and said, "It's always a good day when I get to hire a fresh face." Despite his talk with Natsu earlier, it was true that his day had turned around a little. "You can head back down to that boy now… Maybe you can treat him to dinner again…" He mumbled the last part of his sentence. Lord knew the kid was gonna be in need of pick-me-up.

"Hm?"

"It's nothin'. Just talkin' to myself." He walked over to the door alongside her and opened it, "I'll have Mira let you know when your card's done. She's gonna welcome the hell out of you so be prepared."

Lucy let a nervous laugh out and she left the room, giving him a smile before turning to leave. She wouldn't doubt she'd get a boisterous welcome from the woman; so far she'd seemed like a sunshiny person. If she were looking further into it, she'd say Mira reminded her a little of her mom. Which she might've thought was a bad thing a few days ago, but for some reason it made her happy.

The blonde gave a small celebratory fist pump as she walked down the stairs, so very glad it'd gone well. The burden of having to find a job was now off her shoulders and with that came a sense of relief. It felt like she was actually beginning to settle into the town. When she reached the first floor she immediately sought out her rosy haired friend, hoping to point out that her non-criminal history had in fact helped out but she couldn't spot him. Her head twirled left and right, he shouldn't have been too hard to find, and after a few more looks she concluded that he wasn't there.

To say she was a little disappointed wouldn't have been a lie but she was honestly more concerned about who was going to help her find a mattress now.

"Luuucy!" Mira saw the girl looking lost through the small afternoon crowd from behind the bar and called over to her, "Over here!"

Relieved she hadn't been left to her own devices in a place that was still full of people she didn't know, she hurried off to sit on the bar stool Mira was in front of, "What happened to Natsu?" She questioned once she got there.

"Ah, yeah about that, he said he had to go do something for a minute but he'd be back. He told me to tell you to wait for him." She conveyed Natsu's message while wiping down a pint, an action she did often.

"Oh, alright. Do you know what it was?" She spoke of her curiosity. He didn't mention having to do anything earlier. She would've told him she could get a mattress another day if he were busy.

Mira looked down after hearing the question, a small frown on her face. "I have an idea… He didn't seem too happy when he left."

_That guy? Unhappy?_ Lucy thought. That word didn't fit well with the teen's personality in her opinion. Then again she knew sadness could get to the best of people so it probably wasn't something to be shocked about.

"It had to be something about Igneel…" Mira thought aloud to herself. Nothing made Natsu have that expression or tone of voice other than when he'd been talked to about his father.

"Igneel?" Lucy questioned.

"O-oh… Did I say that out loud?" She gave an embarrassed smile and put a hand on her cheek, hesitating a little before she went on. "Igneel's the name of Natsu's father."

"Did he have a fight with his dad or something?" Lucy knew just how much a fight with your father could ruin your mood…

"No… um…" Mira sighed, "It's complicated. His dad isn't around exactly…"

"He passed away?" Her voice saddened as she asked the question.

"No, he's alive… as far as I know." The bartenders' brows furrowed, "Like I said it's complicated and it's most likely why he left, in my opinion at least, but I don't want to assume things. When Natsu was a child his dad-"

"I'm sorry but... hold on." Lucy cut the woman off softly, "Does this have to do with something very personal to him?" She waited for a nod before she continued, "Not that I don't want to hear this, which I kind of do now to be honest, I'd rather he tell me if he wants me to know. I wouldn't feel right knowing something about someone without their permission."

Lucy felt a twinge of regret after saying that. She hoped she didn't make the woman feel embarrassed in any way, but when she was granted a smile instead of an offended reply, like a lot of people would've given, she knew that wasn't the case.

"You're absolutely right." Mira spoke as she set the pint she was cleaning back on the shelf, "That's very considerate of you."

Lucy only smiled in reply.

It wasn't really _considerate_ on her part. It was more the case that she knew _she'd_ be upset if someone told another person her personal information without her permission, and figured he'd feel the same way. She didn't know the guy well enough to be able to casually hear something personal about him. They were friends, she didn't question that now, but if he wanted her to know she would wait for him to tell her. Better than knowing something she wasn't supposed to.

"Miss Mira!" A childlike voice suddenly sounded from behind her and the bartender's expression softened, "I finally finished that job!"

"That's wonderful!" She beamed down at the girl that came into Lucy's sight as she sat down next to her and initiated a high five, "I said you could do it didn't I?"

"You did!" The young, dark blue haired girl that was now beside her was radiating the purest form of "sweet and kind" Lucy'd ever seen said. "The requester even offered to give me more than his original payment but I couldn't take it. Oh-!"

She hastily turned to Lucy with an apologetic expression, "I'm sorry! Were you two talking?"

"It's fine." Lucy assured the girl who had gone into a stream in of apologies.

"I'm Wendy." She extended her small hand with a smile to match, and Lucy idly wondered yet again how many hands she'd shaken over the past week, "Are you a new member here?"

"I actually am." Lucy was proud to introduce herself as such, "It's nice to meet you!"

"You were accepted!" Mira exploded; it was more a statement rather than a question. She knew Lucy would have no problem becoming a member, "Congratulations!" The woman reached over the counter to pull Lucy into a bone crushing hug, causing Wendy to laugh and Lucy to momentarily lose her breath.

"Y-Yesh I wus!" The blonde tried to reply as she was being squeezed but failed as mushed words spilled out her mouth.

"If you'd like I could recommend you for modeling jobs! My usual employers would love to have you!" Mira gushed, overjoyed Lucy was going to be visiting regularly.

"M-Modeling?!" The girl knew her face was about to overheat when suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder and a voice say, "Hey. Sorry I took off. Are we gettin' you a mattress or what?"

She turned and saw Natsu standing behind her. His hair looked a little windblown and for some reason he had a thin layer of… sweat? on his face, almost as if he'd been running… "Oh right! I was wondering where you went. I thought I'd have to sleep on the floor another night."

Lucy hopped off her stool, deciding not to actually ask where he'd gone and said, "I guess we should go. I have no idea how long it'll take to get one…" She put a hand on her forehead as her eyebrows furrowed, "Not to mention how I'm going to get it back to my house…"

"I got that part. Don't worry." Natsu grinned a seemingly innocent grin and Lucy felt a small sense of relief, unknowing of what was to come.

"Okay then. Bye Mira, Wendy." She waved them farewell and they did the same, watching the pair walk out the doors of the warehouse.

"She's nice." Wendy spoke as Mira place a glass of water in front of her, knowing she wanted some, "You all seem to know her pretty well already?"

The bartender giggled, "I guess she just fits in well here. It's nice seeing a new face around."

"Mira." Makarov appeared beside her with a stack of papers and a loose grin, "Take care of this for me will ya'? My back's killin' me."

"And that makes you unable to work a computer?" Mira scolded her boss but took the papers anyway, "You should really go see a doctor about your back. I've been telling you for over a year now! It's only going to get worse the more you ignore it."

"Yeah, sure. I'll get to it next week." He replied passively and picked at his ear in attempt to make a joke out of it. He didn't like it when people told him to go see a doctor. Made him feel old.

"I'm going to hold you to that." She swore with an ice cold tone. Even if she had to sedate him, the boss was going to the doctor.

"Anyway, Lucy's joined us. Didn't take long." He laughed, "I guess hangin' around with Natsu'll do that to a person."

"Speaking of Natsu," Mira brought the topic of Natsu's earlier behavior back, "He was acting a bit odd earlier…"

"Was he now?" Makarov replied with a question and met her gaze, intending send Mira the message that they'd speak later which she immediately received.

"Yes but I didn't ask. Oh! I forgot to tell you Wendy! About that thing we were discussing…"

Makarov drowned out the girls' conversation, and stared at the front doors to the warehouse. It was beginning to occur to him that maybe Lucy's arriving there hadn't been a total coincidence. He was a fool that believed in fate and destined meetings, and _their_ meeting, to him, didn't seem like something of chance. Maybe it was just his age that was getting to him, or maybe he just wanted to believe in good things but it was definite that those two were something peculiar.

He scoffed at his thoughts a little.

If someone had told him he'd be analyzing a relationship between two teenagers and trying to decide whether it was destiny or coincidence, he would've beaten them up, _and_ the cop that inevitably would've tried to arrest him.

_Heartfilia…_

On a different note it _was_ something to think about, the fact that the girl had come from that name…

Makarov sighed and rubbed his lower back. He couldn't help but get an odd feeling that something was still to come.

* * *

Lucy peeked to her left up at the teen, who was being strangely quiet, walking beside her. Something about him felt off. It seemed unusual for him to not be… _talking_. The thought of her not really knowing him and his moods occurred to her, but even so she couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened to him. What in the world could've happened in the limited amount of time they were apart, she had no clue and for some annoying reason, it bothered her to see Natsu with such a stone like face on.

Just earlier she had decided not to ask but now it was bothering her way too much not to. So she silently took a deep breath and asked, "Is something wrong?"

Despite her voice being gentle, she could've sworn she saw his right eye twitch ever so slightly.

"No." He replied coldly without meaning too and immediately wanted to punch himself.

Lucy turned her head and went back to focusing on what was in front of her, "Oh. Sorry I asked then."

"Wait- hold on." Natsu stopped walking, as did Lucy, and said, "Sorry. I didn't mean to sound like a jacka-"

"No really," the blonde insisted, "I knew I shouldn't have asked." She shrugged and walked back to Natsu, "It's probably something you'd rather not talk about so it's okay."

Her logic was sound but he still wanted to explain himself. One cold "no" may seem like nothing to be sorry for but he hated when he acted that way toward others just 'cause he was feeling a little agitated. "Sure but I'm still sorry. I'll be back to normal in no time."

Lucy nodded in understanding but couldn't help it when a sad smile formed on her face as they continued their walk to the mattress store. She knew those words well.

* * *

"Are you _sure_ you know how to do this?"

"Of course I do. Whaddya think I'm sittin' here for?"

"No, really, are you one hundred percent _completely_ positive you're sure?"

"I said _yes_. Now calm down and put that thing on."

"You mean the _seatbelt_?"

"I said that."

"No you called it "that thin-" AH!"

Lucy felt her body fling backwards as her friend, and _apparently_ licensed driver, she hadn't seen him with one, sped off onto the road, spiking her blood pressure by a large amount she was sure. Quickly, she secured herself into her seatbelt and prayed a collective prayer to every religion there was that she wouldn't die an unmarried woman.

"I wasn't done talking!" She yelled over the loud music he had insisted on playing, she liked it a little actually, "You did that on purpose!"

He laughed, "You were gonna go on about me forgetting what a "seatbelt" was," the teen actually took his hands off the wheel to make air quotations, "and I figured since I already knew what you were gonna say I could save you the breath."

Lucy felt her teeth grind, "One, how the hell do you forget what a seatbelt is? Two, don't just assume you know what I'm going to say! It's rude and jesus christ- WATCH THE ROAD!" She scolded him as he'd been looking at her the whole time she'd been talking. The girl was two seconds from getting him to pull over.

"Sorry, sorry." He apologized and Lucy frowned at the small laugh he stifled.

"Who's truck is this anyway?" She questioned as she looked through the back window at the mattress she bought. It was a queen size and she tested it by seeing how quickly the teen beside her had almost fallen asleep on it. It'd been quite the funny experience.

"The stripper's."

Lucy giggled but quickly stopped herself, "He said he _wasn't_ a stripper."

"And _I_ can say I'm not a very good driver but we both that isn't tr-SHIT." Natsu cursed as he drove over a curb while turning.

"What was that?"

"A joke."

"Yeah, okay."

"It _was_."

"Alright," Lucy laughed, "I believe you." She didn't really.

"I don't think you d-" He almost ran over another curb.

"Okay! I think you need to stop talking and focus on the road before you make me vomit my breakfast."

Natsu muttered something under his breath and did as she said.

About ten minutes later, full of hellish driving, almost accidents and storms of swearing from both the blonde and pink haired teen, they finally arrived at the front of her house.

Lucy immediately hopped out of the truck and bent over, clutching her shirt where her fast beating heart was, "REMIND ME TO NEVER GET IN A CAR WITH YOU AS THE DRIVER EVER AGAIN. EVER."

"Come on." Natsu rounded the front of the vehicle and appeared beside her, "It wasn't that… bad." Even he knew his driving wasn't the best but there was no way he was gonna admit it.

"Oh yes it _was_." She replied, "Please tell me you don't have a license." If he did she was going to lose all faith in the DMV.

"Nope. But I have had lessons."

She sighed a little, feeling somewhat better even though what they'd just done was completely illegal and in no way any better.

"Let's just get this thing into my house please."

Natsu nodded and walked over to the bed of the truck, debating whether or not he'd be able to do it by himself and ultimately decided help was needed. "Alright, you need to get in there."

"Okay." She agreed and went over, stopping just beside him.

"What?" He questioned her expecting look.

"Aren't you supposed to lower this thing?" She knocked on the very back part of the truck that she _knew _was supposed to open.

"Just hop over."

"_Why? _You have the key don't you?"

"They're up in the front."

"So go get them?"

Natsu groaned and she conceded, "Alright! Fine!"

Lucy easily hopped into the back and mumbled to herself, "don't hafta be a baby about it… geez."

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing! What now?" She looked down to him; a little happy she was taller at the moment.

"Push it over and I'll catch it." He motioned with his hands, "Then you come down and grab the other end."

" 'Kay." She pushed her hair behind her ears and bent down to lift the mattress up. It was surprisingly light for its size, thought she did have to put a bit of effort into picking it up, "Just don't let it touch the ground alright?"

"Got it." He replied and readily caught it as she pushed it over as told to.

"You good?"

Natsu heard her ask from underneath the bed and let a small laugh out, "Yeah! All good…"

He listened to her feet hit the ground and swiftly grab the other side of the mattress, "Okay! Let's get this inside the house!"

And they did with no troubles, except for Plue constantly barking at the bed as they brought it in and trying to steal Natsu's shoes from his feet.

The two of them chucked the bed down onto her bedroom floor and it landed with a loud thud. Lucy immediately threw herself onto it as Plue put his small nose to work, sniffing it like crazy. The blonde let out a sigh, falling in even deeper love with the bed. It'd only been almost a week since she slept on a real bed, and the one she just bought wasn't as nice as her old one though buying it herself made it superior, but it felt like forever since she'd gotten a good night's sleep.

"This feels soooo nice." She stated with a smile as she rolled around on it, forgetting there was still a male in the room and the sight of seeing a young woman twisting around on a bed probably wasn't the most appropriate sight.

Natsu wanted to hit himself over how unguarded the blonde was but went for pretending not to be fazed, "Right? I almost passed out on the thing."

Lucy sat up, the back of her hair was now a complete mess, "That's how I knew to buy it."

The teen made a confused face but she didn't elaborate. Instead she grabbed her phone out of her pocket to check the time. It was already evening, almost six, and she'd just realized they skipped lunch.

"How have you not mentioned to me that we didn't eat lunch?" She asked, shocked that with his appetite he hadn't keeled over.

"Dunno. Figured you wanted to get all that done as soon as possible…" He half lied. Truth was he just wasn't hungry. Though he did think _once_ during the time they were out not to bother her with anything else.

"I guess… Are you hungry now? Do you want to eat here or do you have plans to eat it somewhere else?"

"Nah. I have to get home and check on Happy. Thanks though." He declined her invitation and followed after her as she left the room, nonchalantly saying, "But man… you must be rich or _something_."

The girl stopped dead in her tracks and almost choked on her own spit, quickly turning to face him. Her mind, of course, was already beginning to head toward the worst scenario as she practically yelled, "Who told you?!"

_Was it the boss?! He said he wouldn't tell!_ She thought to herself, panicked for, _really_, no reason.

"Whoa calm down!" Natsu rose his hands, palms outward, "Who told me what?"

"Wh… What?" Confusion played onto Lucy's face, "He didn't tell yo-"

_Shit! _The girl shut her mouth, effectively stopping all words coming from it as her mind cleared. There was no way the boss could've told him. He'd been with her the whole time and even if he texted him she would've seen. There was nothing for him to gain from it either, and she really didn't think he was the type to try and blackmail her. Not that anyone could gain anything from doing that anyway.

Natsu didn't know anything.

She was fine.

"Wait… what is it you think I was told?"

Or not…

"I-It's nothing!" She tried to play it off.

Natsu wasn't having it, "_No_, you definitely blew up there for a second. What is it? Did I hit the mark? Was I actually right about that?"

"I said it's nothing. I was just kidding!" She was a terrible liar under pressure.

"Not buyin' it. That was real panic on your face and in your voice. Is there somethi... What's wrong?" Natsu asked worriedly when he saw her face begin to twist into a distressed expression.

"I just- I don't want to talk about it so stop asking! I didn't push you about what was wrong _you_ earlier! Should I ask you again?! Do _you_ want to talk about something personal?!" She snapped with a real, awful bite to her voice and as soon as she was finished all she wanted was to disappear.

The only thing she could do was stare for a moment, genuinely shocked at her explosion toward him. She didn't know what to make of it. There was no sense to her actions. Even Plue, who'd just finished sniffing her bed, stopped at the bedroom doorway.

Worst of all, her reaction had just reminded her of her dad.

"I… I don't…" She looked down, trying to get an apology out but her brain didn't seem to want to piece a sentence together.

Natsu gazed down at her. He wasn't upset by her reaction. Instead he was desperately trying to think of something that could sooth the girl and when he did, though he didn't know if it would work, he had to momentarily process that what he was about to say was true in every sense of the word. "I wouldn't mind telling you y'know."

Lucy's head shot up to meet Natsu's eyes, astonished by his reply, and his unexpected expression.

He was… _grinning_… of all things.

"Wha…"

"I wouldn't mind telling you." He repeated and leaned against the second floors' railing that overlooked the living room downstairs, "I just don't tell people if they don't ask, though earlier what happened was still kinda fresh so I didn't feel up to talkin' about it out in the open… Sorry about just now by the way." He scratched his head, "Guess I was being pushy."

"No, you weren't. I was just being too sensitive…" She refuted his statement, "It's just a… it's just complicated. I'm the one who needs to apologize."

"S'okay. I'm not angry or anything." He paused for a moment, and said, "Did you want to know?"

"About what was bothering you?"

He nodded.

"Only if you want me to."

He sighed, "Well it's not like I really _want_ anyone to know… It's not my favorite thing to talk about and the reactions I get are always the same… but I guess it's something you're gonna find out about me anyway."

"Well, like I said," She leaned against the railing as well, and tucked her bangs behind her ear, "only if you want me to know."

Natsu ran a hand over his face, stretching it a bit. The events of the day were starting to catch up to him. "Earlier, when you asked me what was wrong... I was just thinkin' about my dad." The word "dad" sent a small jolt through Lucy's body. "The old man told me he was probably in some town up north… he wanted to know if I'd go look."

"That's a bad thing…?"

The teen explained, "Not exactly…" he wasn't sure himself to be honest, all he knew was that it _bothered_ him. "But to the old man it seemed like it. Guy was pissed."

"I'm not following…"

"When I was a kid my dad took off. Left me for who knows what. I don't care much at this point…" Lucy was surprised at his calm tone, "it's been years since I've seen the guy, and he's been more out of my life than in it now." He adjusted his scarf, "Though I guess hearin' that he was actually up to something somewhere threw me off."

Lucy felt her face twist into one of empathy. Her heart ached for him, feeling she could relate somewhat to his story. Her father hadn't left her physically, but emotionally he disappeared the day her mom died.

_There it is…_ Natsu thought to himself when he saw the blondes' expression. He couldn't blame her. It was a sad story, he guessed.

"That's awful…" She finally said, and in turn Natsu gave a dry laugh.

"Yeah, suppose so."

"There's no _supposing_!" She retorted, genuinely feeling angry, "That was a fact I just stated! It's _awful!_ A parent should never do that! You don't do that to your kids! Why the hell would you have them if you're just going to abandon them?! It's wrong! Completely wrong! I don't care if there's a good reason for it! You just don't…" The girl stopped when she noticed her vision was beginning to blur and hot tears were falling from her eyes. She quickly wiped them away with her wrist, and wondered for a moment just which father she'd been talking about.

"You too?" Natsu asked softly, his brows creasing with concern for the teary-eyed girl.

There wasn't any point in hiding it from him now, Lucy figured. She'd already cried in front of him, something she never imagined doing, so denying it was off the table. "Kind of…"

"Damn." Natsu sighed, "Shit way to end the day huh?"

Despite the mood, Lucy couldn't help but laugh at his to-the-point words, "Yeah… "

"You're not gonna act _weird_ around me now, are you?" He asked with a little playfulness in his voice as he moved to descend the stairs, "Cause you're already weird enough and I don't think adding more's gonna work in your favor."

"Oh shut it with the weird thing already!" She smacked his shoulder and he grinned, "And no, I'm not going to treat you any differently. Unless you tell me you only have a month to live or something… _then_ I'll have to adjust my attitude."

He turned to look up at her when he reached the first floor, a deadly serious expression on his face, "Who told you?"

For a moment Lucy was about to actually believe him and most likely cry again if it were true, but then she realized he was mimicking her reaction to him earlier, "I _will_ punch you if you don't turn around in the next half second."

"Haha! Alright, alright." He moved and made his way to the door, "Just trying to make sure you were fine before I left."

"By trying to make me believe you're going to die in a month?"

"Can't take jokes in the evening either I see…"

"I _can_ and I'm _fine_." She clarified, and looked down for a second as he opened the door to leave, wanting to say something but couldn't think of how to word it. Instead, she went for, "See you tomorrow then."

He raised a curious brow, "You will?"

His reply made her stop for a moment, wondering why she said that. "Well yeah. I'm a member now right?" She played it off as a light blush spread on her face, "So I'll see you tomorrow… Unless you have other plans of course!" She quickly and awkwardly added that last part. The girl didn't want to just assume he'd be there.

Natsu laughed as she fumbled over more words but cut her short when he replied, "No, you'll see me tomorrow."

The teen opened the door and stepped out onto her softly lit porch. It was well past six now so the sun had already disappeared behind the trees that surrounded her home, "Oh and make sure the little guy doesn't pee on your bed. Can't count the times Happy did that…" He recalled those irritating memories, "It _won't_ wash out easily, let me tell you-"

"I think I got it!" She stopped him, really not wanting to talk about… that.

"Alright then. Goodnight." He grinned, it was the toothy one again, and said, "Don't forget to eat like earlier."

"I won't… I'm starving actually…" She mumbled as she looked down to rub her stomach, then looked back up at him with a smile, "Goodnight. Thanks for today."

Instead of replying, because that would surely keep them going forever, he waved and turned his back, eventually disappearing from her sight.

Lucy stood in her spot for about a minute longer, thinking over what they just talked about, and realized he hadn't asked her to elaborate on what she meant by "kind of". She sighed and leaned against her doorway, a small, grateful smile appearing on her face. He probably understood she didn't want to say anything. Not because she didn't _want_ him to know but for much more… _emotional_ reasons. If she wasn't careful she was going to think that a guy who drives irresponsibly, with no license to boot, was quite possibly one of the nicest people she'd ever met.

Natsu, who had just made it out of her front yard, if it could really be called that, shook his head and wished desperately for the heat on his face to go away.

_"You will?"? Damn it… _He thought to himself.

The hopefulness his voice had when he said that wouldn't leave his mind alone. It bugged him that he didn't do it intentionally… that he wasn't the one who controlled that. At least that's what it felt like… It was almost as if someone had pushed a button and made his voice turn into some cheesy YA movie characters' voice.

It just _bugged_ him.

His stomach growled and he was really starting to feel his hunger now. Skipping lunch was never going to happen again.

Setting aside his slight embarrassment and curious feelings, he pick up his pace to a fast jog and wondered what he was going to eat for dinner.

Lucy, back at her house, had just shut her front door after putting her _own_ odd feelings away and went back into her room. When her friend had left an idea suddenly popped up inside her head and she felt she had to act on it now or she wouldn't do it later.

In a hurry, the girl grabbed a notebook she packed in her bag and placed it on her bed along with her body, picking up a pen she had in her purse before she did. Writing had always been a love of hers, she always did it secretly due to obvious reasons, her father had caught her once and blown up about it, but it never occurred to her that she could write letters to her mother. In the past she wouldn't have _dared_ to write to her mom. It would've been either too stressful because of her dad, or too sad due to her cursed emotions. But now that she was gone and didn't have to worry about her dad finding out, though she still might cry, it was something she really wanted to do.

The blonde stared at the page and as she was trying to find words, trying to feel like she was talking to her mom again, tears, as she suspected, began to fall from her eyes. Oddly enough, she was okay with it.

With a shaky hand, and a sad smile on her face, she began to write the words "Dear Mom".

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry for the longer wait this time around. I had this sitting in my documents for a few days and I just could _not_ bring myself to read it over and correct things. Even now I'm sure there's probably still mistakes somewhere in this longass chapter so, sorry for that... -_- writing blocks suck.

Anyway, Lucy's now a member of FT, Levy and Lucy are gonna be bookworm bros together, and the nalu's progressing nicely imo. I didn't want them to talk about Lucy's past yet, since Natsu's is common knowledge among his friends I figured his should come out first. Lucy's turn is probs gonna be a little more emotional but as it stands now she's not ready to share that info with people. *_MANGA SPOILER_*But... I kinda feel bad for makin' Igneel seem like such a bastard now that he's made a return in the manga, which i _flipped shit_ over, buuuuut that's the beauty of an au I guess. still messed up for him to "leave" natsu anyway imo.*_END OF MANGA SPOILER_*

Also, do any of you find my sentences hard to read? Am I too descriptive or not descriptive enough? Do you prefer shorter sentences or longer? I'd love to know. :))))

I feel that now most of the introduction chapters are done so i can get into some real just all of them being together chapters. They're gonna do jobs together for sure so that'll be fun. I hope you enjoyed and really thank you very very very very very much for reading and reviewing. Warms my heart right up.


	8. Chapter 8

Erza woke up abruptly thanks to the chill of her sword pressing against her thigh as she rolled over onto her back. It wasn't uncommon for her to wake up that way, in fact, that was how she got up _most_ days. Somehow her blanket would always end up on the right side of her body during her slumber, leaving the weapon exposed to the cold nights' air. The redhead never slept without it. There hadn't been a night that went by since she received it where she didn't sleep next to it. It brought her comfort knowing she had something to protect herself with even when she was at her most vulnerable.

Was it normal for a twenty-one year old to sleep next to a sword every night? Probably not. Did it matter to her whether or not it was normal? No.

Besides, she had proper reasoning to want a sword. Over the last few years of her life she'd made enemies- if that was the proper word for cowardly thugs that wanted to beat her up.

Fights of different kinds used to be the way for her to make money and basically be able to live when she was younger. Due to that little section of her life, people had grown to hate her and her strength. That and the fact she was a woman who could kick middle-aged men's asses. One thing she knew men like that hated most was when a woman "dared" to be better at something than they were.

Long, fight ridden story short, she had a reason to want to sleep next to a sword.

It only takes one incident to learn you can never protect yourself too much.

Erza carefully moved the weapon further to the left, so that it wasn't touching her, and gave a long sigh. Her eyes wandered around the room she'd been living in for years now. Many amazing mostly fight free years. It was located in an apartment that was being rented out to her, she had insisted to pay rent once she actually began working, which was owned by her boss. He'd taken her in, like most of her friends, and given her a real chance to live out what was left of her childhood stress free. There weren't words to describe what the old man had done for her so she planned to live out her days trying to repay him in any way she could. He often told her there was no need, that he hadn't done much, that he only did what any decent person would do, but still she couldn't help but want to do her best for him.

The woman smiled and sat up in her bed, opening her curtains that were directly to her left. The window revealed a sunny morning, with clouds strewn across the blue sky. She looked for a moment longer, rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes and swiftly slid off her bed. Almost instantly she wanted to go back under her sheets, sleeping in only a tank top and her underwear was proving to be a bad choice in the mornings, but instead she quickly ran across her room and grabbed some pants that were hung on her chair.

As soon a she was dressed appropriately to be outside, she tied her hair up, and left the room to begin her usual morning routine. Every day she would wake up all the residents, or attempt to, of the small apartment complex her boss owned, making sure they were up and got a good breakfast, which she and whoever else's turn it was prepared, into their system before the rest of the day started. Her friends weren't too fond of her self-appointed responsibility, but it was good for them so she didn't care.

Erza stepped out of her front door and into the dewy morning air, admiring the way the sun looked behind the clouds as she walked approximately five steps to Levy's door, letting herself in. None of them locked their doors at night for some reason. There was a locked gate at the entrance and no one else lived there besides them so they really didn't see the point.

They all knew how to defend themselves anyhow. They were pretty damn good at it too, thanks to the self-defense lessons given by none other than herself.

"Levy!" Erza called out into the book ridden home as she walked in, shaking her head at the girl who'd fallen asleep on her couch with reading material nestled on her chest, "Levy! How many times have I told you not to fall asleep on your couch like that? This is why you have a sore neck most days."

"Mmm…" The bookworm only mumbled in response.

"Come on. Wake up."

"Don't… wanna…" She mumbled again but this time she tried to move her face away from the woman trying to wake her up, only to have her book fall on the wooden floor with a loud thud that made her jolt upright. "Wha-?!"

Her head swiveled back and forth, making her blue hair, which was more accurately described as a mane at this point, gather around and over her face, "What time is it?!" She asked as she stood up.

"It's seven-thirty. Today's your turn to help me make breakfast." She crossed her arms over her chest and almost wanted to giggle at the in-between state of asleep and awake her friend was in, "It's simple today. Just eggs, bacon and toast. Hurry up to the kitchen and I'll meet you there when I get everyone else up." To clarify, they had a communal eating area. Complete with a kitchen, eating room, TV room, and the like. The boss had the place renovated for them some years ago so that it was more like dorm living and it made it easier for them to actually live together.

"Oh… okay. Geez I thought it was later… That's good…" She began walking toward her bedroom and mumbled something about never reading right before bed again. The teen always promised herself this but both she and Erza knew those were empty words. "I'll go down as soon as I'm dressed."

"Okay." The woman replied and left the home, moving onto Gray's place next.

About half an hour later, Erza had successfully woken up the residents of "Fairy Hills"- that was what the master had decided to call it after the renovation, he had odd taste in names now that she thought about it. She felt accomplished in her duties as she walked down the short flight of stairs and went back inside the building to join Levy in making their breakfast.

"Erza…" Levy groaned as she pulled two cartons of eggs, milk, and bacon out of the fridge, "please, _PLEASE_, do not ever let me fall asleep like that again…" She rubbed her neck as she put the ingredients down and Erza moved to grab the bread.

"I'll try, but you need to make an effort to do your nightly reading in bed."

"But I can't get a good position in my b- yes, yes you're right! I'll do that." She quickly turned her sentence around when she got one of those signature "Erza" looks and decided it was best to just follow what she said.

"Good." Erza smiled and looked at all the uncooked food before them, noting people were beginning to file in and watch some morning TV, "Shall we get this going?"

* * *

Breakfast passed as it always did. Gray came down with only his boxers and was immediately sent back up by Erza, leaving a dazzled Juvia in his wake, the Strauss siblings practically moved as one sleepy body through the morning, Gajeel came down with his cat as did Wendy, and Natsu, despite living some miles away, walked in unannounced and unsurprisingly. Others would file in normally or pass on breakfast in exchange for a few more hours of sleep.

If she had to choose, she'd say that mornings were her favorite part of the day.

After cleaning up the mess in the kitchen and saying "see you later"s to her friends, she grabbed her mail from her box, she had many magazine subscriptions, most of which were armor, weapon, and sweets related, and went back up to her apartment to get ready for the rest of the day.

Her door opened with a creak and she felt a burst of cold air wash past her legs as she walked in, intently looking through the envelopes in her hand and quickly checking her phone right after. Nothing of importance had come.

She sighed and swept her bangs behind her ear as she sat down on her couch.

Truth be told, she was waiting for any kind of word from her old friend Jellal.

Their relationship was the very definition of the word complicated and if she weren't in love with the fool then there was no way she'd still be waiting for him to show up one day or at least send her a letter, a text even. She'd be fine with an "I'm doing ok." on a phone screen as long as he was attempting to contact her. She didn't have his number, didn't know where he was living, and honestly, didn't even know if he still gave a damn about her.

Yet she was still hopelessly and _stupidly_ in love with him.

The two of them had been living in the same orphanage together since they were small children; she'd forgotten how old they actually were. When Jellal had been taken in and introduced to them, they became fast friends. The boy had even given her a last name to live by- it wasn't surprising to her that she was still in love with him. He had done so much for her. Whether it was just making her smile, or physically protecting her from the not-so-kind workers, all of his actions were to be repaid in mountains in her eyes.

It seems, from that short bit of their lives, that there was nothing complicated about them. They were two children, growing up in an orphanage with obvious feelings for one another, obvious to everyone but each other of course, that wanted nothing more than to be with each other for a long time. Innocence at its best, she thought. But then something happened, something in Jellal clicked and he thought of a plan to let them escape that hellish place once and for all.

At the time it seemed like a full proof plan, to a desperate child. The two of them had thought nothing would be able to stand in their way, though in reality there was a lot. Jellal had been so confident in his idea and Erza would've followed him regardless. Unfortunately, some time before the planned day of their escape, three other children had gotten the same idea as them. They tried to hop the fence in the courtyard and long story short, Erza and Jellal saw the consequences of their soon-to-be actions up close. The children came back to them with bruised faces and arms, hardly the end of their punishment. The sight terrified Erza, but only fed Jellal's desire to leave.

They knew what would happen now if they were caught, but in the end they decided to go through with it. His logic had been "We have to at least try… right?" and she agreed.

On the night they planned to leave, many other children warned them not to go. They didn't want to see more friends being punished and some even shed a few tears. It almost made Erza stay. Almost.

Things had been going well for them. They made it out of the building without being caught, and even managed to steal some food on their way out. When they reached the fence, the only way out with a chance of them getting away unnoticed, things got dicey. Without their knowledge, the workers had put an alarm system along the fences ground, set to go off if someone touched it and of course, they did.

The blaring noise sounded without warning and sent Erza into a frenzied panic, looking to Jellal who was still calm but had a face full of urgency.

"Come on!" He had said to her, pulling her toward him so that he could lift her up, "You first!"

She took his help and began climbing the fence, waiting for him at the top before she jumped over. "Hurry! They're coming!" She had whispered urgently to him.

The boy had begun his climb and made to her easily. He'd smiled at her like they accomplished the great feat in the world and just as they jumped her clumsiness got the better of her. She fell back to where they came from just as he landed on the other side of the fence.

"ERZA!" He had screamed her name like she was dying, "ERZA!"

She bounced back up like a coiled spring and looked back at the building, noticing people were now starting to file out of it. It was too late for her, she knew.

She messed up.

"Go!" She had told him through the fence, "You have to go now! They're gonna go over there!"

"No way!" He refused, banging the fence as if it would fall down if he hit it enough times, "You have to come too!"

"No Jellal!" She had begun crying, "You know what'll happen if we both get caught! Just go! Please!"

He had gone silent.

But there wasn't time for silence, "Jellal! Go! Please just go!" She had pleaded with him.

He had banged his fist against the fence one last time, hard enough to break some wood and make his hand bleed, "I'm going to come back for you! I _swear_!"

Erza had laughed, wiping the snot and tears from her face, "I know."

Immediately after that she was grabbed by a female worker, and Jellal had already begun sprinting away.

Her friend had made it out and that was all that mattered to her.

A year had gone by after that and there had been no word from Jellal. It made her sad, of course, and the "I told you so!"s from the children were like salt in her wounds, but she had grown up a lot in that year. Her body had grown and so had her mind. Running away on her own seemed possible to her now.

And it was.

She escaped easily, the same exact way she tried that year ago. The alarm hadn't gone off and she made it out of there without a single screw up. Her first plan when she got out was to search for Jellal. If she could find him, if she could just find him, she thought everything would work out nicely. They could live together once again and be free to do whatever pleased them.

Only life outside the orphanage, she had no idea, didn't work the way you wanted it to.

Years passed by and Erza had become hardened. It was natural for someone who had to fight for a living. She knew there were other ways to go about making money, but fighting had become the one thing she knew she was good at. That and once she was a known figure in the underworld of illegal fight clubs, some people didn't exactly let her go about waitressing in peace. She tried it once. A fight had broken out in the place she worked and in result she was violently fired.

That was never tried again.

Her childhood/teenage story did have somewhat of a happy ending though. Somewhere along the line she met Makarov, a blessing hidden in a small, elderly man's body. He taught her things and took her under his wing, his wing being Fairy Tail Odd Jobs. She was amazed at the completely different environment he introduced her to. She hadn't thought a place like that was possible for her. It was easily the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her.

Also, something worth mentioning- Erza mentioned this every time someone asked her about Makarov- he had put an end to the abuse at her old orphanage. The second day into knowing him, she pleaded with him to report the workers actions, no one had ever believed her, and he did. He had a friend on the police force in her old town and made damn sure all those people were fired and never given a job with children again.

Life went on.

She was seventeen, years into her life with her new friends, when she ran into Jellal again.

The boss had sent her on a job in another town, and sure enough an unsuspected reunion played out between the two of them. She ran into him on a winding path into the town, she tended to walk instead of drive, and had almost dropped all of her things at the sight of him. The emotions she was feeling at that moment ranged from anger, to happiness, but the most prominent of all was love. It was an overbearing almost heartbreaking love for the man who looked just as shocked as she did.

It was him who made the first move, surprisingly. He ran up to her and pulled her into his chest, which was completely different from before. It wasn't supposed to be something that baffled her, given time will do that to people- she had been well endowed during the years apart herself, but it almost made her want to cry at how different he looked and felt. She didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around him but as she did it seemed like a switch flipped in her friends head and he pulled away.

Their reunion was short and she _wished_ she could say sweet.

From the moment she looked into his eyes, she could tell he wasn't the same person. But neither was she.

By the way he talked to her and averted his eyes she could tell he felt guilty. That was the kind of person he'd always been and Erza didn't expect that to change. The teen didn't bring up their botched escape all those years ago and he didn't ask how she got out. They only spent a few hours together but it was enough for Erza to want to never let him out of her sights again. But it was too good to last, she supposed.

As they were parting she had given him her number, the warehouses address, and the apartments, hoping he would catch on and know she wanted to see him again. She guessed he didn't by how the days passed without word. Maybe he had seen through her façade and saw how desperate she'd been…

The woman gave a dry laugh and got up from her couch. Sitting there all day wasn't going to help and she had a job to get to in an hour so it wasn't like that was an option anyway.

Her past was a rough one and everything she had been and done was left there. The only thing she carried with her from back then was the one thing she wished she could leave behind the most.

She was in love with a fool.

* * *

Lucy raised her arms above her head and stretched, trying to get the sleepiness out of her system. It was one in the afternoon, peak heat, and for some reason the girl thought it was a good idea to take Plue out on a walk and explore the town a little- something she still hadn't done despite being there for a good while already. It wasn't the exploring she had a problem with, it was the fact it was extremely hot and she hadn't bought a sunhat yet.

The teen looked down at her companion and he didn't seem to mind it as much as she did, though she would have to stop by the pet store and get him a portable dog bowl for water soon. He just stood next her, they had taken refuge under a parks tree, wagging his tail and panting like the adorable puppy he was. And though he was adorable, Lucy had learned he was going to be pretty difficult to care for once he reached horse-size.

She thought it smart to stop by the local pet store and learn everything there was to know about raising a Great Dane, and man had she gotten an earful. Never had she known taking care of a dog was so much work, thankfully the woman there gave her all the info she needed so she was set on that front. Expense wise was a different story. But she'd deal with it. He was too cute to give away and the teen had already become attached to him so it was too late for that anyhow. The lady had also told her that he was around three and a half months old, so that was nice to know.

Lucy bent down and pet her friend, happy that he was already accustomed to her. For a moment she got lost in her thoughts as she stared into the small pond in the park. It'd already been a few days since she was accepted into Fairy Tail, a week to be exact, and she had spent every single one of them in Natsu's company. Well, not exactly in _his_ company… like, it wasn't on _purpose_ or anything. She had gone to the warehouse and he just happened to be there every day- which she learned a few days before that he normally was.

For once, truthfully, Lucy could say she was having a good time.

"Lucy?"

The teen looked up to see Erza calling out to her and waving as she came closer. She was wearing dark red jeans, a black V-neck undershirt, and a pair of dark combat boots. Her hair was tied up, no doubt due to the scorcher that was the day, and had a sword attached to her hip…

... ... ...

_A sword?! _Lucy thought, a little panicked. _How has she not been arrested?_

"If you're worried about my sword don't worry." Erza laughed at the display of concern on her blonde friends face, "I have a permit and the police around here know me quite well. The blade on this one is blunted anyway. No fatal damage, if I'm careful enough, can be done to anyone so fear not."

"O-oh… okay… Wait no, not okay." Lucy had to ask about it now; her curiosity was going to kill her if she didn't, "Why on _earth_ are you carrying a sword around?"

Erza laughed again. It wasn't a question she heard scarcely, "For self-defense and for my jobs. I know how to use it, believe me."

"Oh I don't doubt that." Lucy freely admitted. The woman in front of her seemed like she'd know that kind of thing, "It's just so unusual to see… for me at least." The teen couldn't take her eyes off it. It was big, shiny, and very intricately decorated, she saw.

As Lucy was inspecting the weapon a little closer, Erza noticed Plue was there and immediately asked, "Would you like to trade for a moment?"

"Huh?" Lucy looked around for a second, "Oh! You mean Plue?" She laughed, "Of course! If it's alright with you."

"It seems like an even trade." Erza spoke, eager to get her hands on the cutest puppy she'd ever seen.

"Alright!" Despite being nervous about the weapon 0.054 seconds ago, Lucy was a little excited to hold it.

Erza carefully placed the sword into Lucy's hands and Lucy handed Plue's leash over to the woman, grinning at the way Erza was practically hopping in her spot.

"Hello again." Erza greeted Plue as she sat down in front of him, laughing when the puppy plopped himself down on her lap, "Do you remember me?"

"Man… this must've been expensive…" Lucy thought aloud as she weighed the blade in her hand, trying to experience what people in moves feel when they hold a sword for the first time.

"It was a gift from the boss. I didn't dare ask how much he spent on it." Erza replied, keeping her eyes on the little guy in front of her.

"Hiya!" The blonde couldn't help but swing it very, very, very carefully at least once.

Erza smiled but said nothing as Plue suddenly decided he wanted to go closer to the pond.  
"Okay, okay." She sat up and walked with him, "I'm going."

A few minutes passed of them doing their own activities until Lucy suddenly called out to Erza with almost tangible tears in her voice. The woman looked back to her friend and saw that she was about to be handcuffed by an officer.

"Lucy!" Erza stifled a laugh at the teen's distressed expression, "Officer, just a minute!"

She quickly explained the situation and the cop immediately recognized her, looking a little intimidated the moment he did. She tried to give him her permit but he said there was no need and high tailed it out of there.

"Okay… that's enough of that." Lucy let out a deep breath and handed the sword back to its owner.

"You're sure?" She asked and attached the weapon back to her hip.

"Yup. I don't plan to be almost arrested twice in one day thank you." The blonde pushed her hair out of her face and set her hands on her hips, "I need to get back to what I was doing anyway. Would you like to join me?"

Erza was a little surprised at the invitation but accepted nonetheless, "Sure. What were you two doing?"

"I was just going to try and familiarize myself with the town. It'd be nice to have someone who actually knows where they're going along."

"Alright," Erza replied enthusiastically, "I'll show you my favorite bakeries! May I hold onto him a little longer?"

"Of course!" Lucy grinned and wondered to herself if what they were about to do could be considered a "girl's day out". If so, it would be her first and she'd be lying if she said she weren't overly-excited.

* * *

The three of them wandered the town, talking about different things as Erza showed her most of her favorite places. First up was her most frequented bakery, the man inside immediately greeted Erza and asked if she wanted the usual to which she replied she be going back later for, then a metal works shop that had quite the intimidating woman behind the counter, and then her favorite clothing store. It was a place that sold a lot of leather but had a wide variety of "cutesy" clothes as well. It was almost as if the store had been tailored to the redhead's exact taste.

Lucy had a wonderful time.

It was now five in the evening and they finally reached the warehouses' doors. There were people outside sitting at tables enjoying the shade the building offered, playing cards, drinking, and reading. The sight once again made Lucy feel at home though her home had been nothing like the place, not even when her mom was there. It was a peculiar thing and Lucy had decided, after hours of contemplation, that she'd never be able to figure out why it made her feel so comfortable.

"I'm sorry if that ended up taking longer than you expected." Erza apologized as they walked inside and took a seat at the bar, "It seems I got a little carried away showing you around."

Lucy shook her head and smiled, "No don't worry about it. It was fun and I got to see a lot of new places! I'm definitely going to go back to that bakery. It smells _heavenly_ in there."

"It does, doesn't it?" Erza agreed with a proud smile on her face. She was glad someone else was praising her favorite bakery.

"What's the usual by the way?" Lucy asked as she waved at Mira who was trying to quickly finish taking an order so she could greet them, "That man seemed to know you well."

"O-Oh… it's just my favorite box of sweets, nothing too extravagant." That was a lie. Her "usual" was five slices of cheesecake and two soufflés- all of that for herself to be stuffed in her fridge later that night and consumed daily until she ran out.

"I see. I wonder if they make peanut butter and banana sandwiches…" Lucy mumbled to herself but discarded the thought knowing it was a bakery and not a café.

"Lucy! Erza!" Mira practically ran over to them after taking her order to the kitchen, "Nice to see you both, as always. Were you two on an outing?"

"Indeed we were." Erza replied and set her sword down on the counter.

"Ah, ah! You know weapons aren't allowed on the counter, Erza." Mira scolded.

"Tch."

"Don't click your tongue at me!" The white haired woman retorted, "It's the boss's rule!"

She didn't reply. She just placed it on the floor next to her so that it was leaning against the counter's base.

Mira nodded in approval and went on, "So? What were you two doing?"

"I accompanied Lucy on a walk around town."

"Oh that's nice." Mira nodded and suddenly got an idea, "We should have a girl's day out soon! That'd loads of fun!"

The blonde now knew her outing with Erza wasn't considered a "girl's day out". Not that she minded. It was fun even without the title, "I love to!" She agreed and her words put a big grin on Mira's face.

"I'll get to planning! Oh it'll be so much fun." She was already mentally scheduling all their activities in her head. "Would you guys like anything? A drink? Some food?"

"I'll take two waters please." She replied and looked down at the little guy who plopped himself down at her feet. It was safe to say they both got a good work out from walking around all day.

" 'Kay, two waters and Erza I assume you want your ususal?"

"Yes. Thank you."

_Another usual…?_ Lucy thought idly to herself as she bent down to rub Plue on his crinkly head.

"Hey, Lucy! Didn't see you come in!" Natsu shouted across the warehouse as he stood up from his table and began jogging over to her. It was a lie. He saw her come in but he didn't know when it was a good time to walk up to her since she seemed to be in a conversation…

Lucy looked up and smiled at the teen as he came over, knowing what his reaction to Plue would be. She urgently whispered to her puppy, "Look, look! Who's that?!" and immediately his little body jumped up and spotted Natsu, barking happily at the sight of him.

"You brought this little death bringer?" Natsu grimaced as he finally approached them. He was teasing of course but a part of him instantly feared for the shoes on his feet.

"_Death bringer?_" Lucy laughed as he sat down next to her at the bar, picking Plue up and setting him on his lap.

"To all the shoes in the world, yeah." He spoke as if it was common knowledge and Lucy let it go.

Erza smiled fondly at the pair. It was nice seeing them together. Their relationship was already so natural in the short time they knew each other it was almost odd. No, it definitely was odd. A good odd though.

"Oh, Lucy!" Mira spoke as she came out of the kitchen holding a glass and bowl full of water, "I forgot to tell you the boss wanted me to send you up when you came in. Give this to him please Natsu." She handed the bowl over to Natsu and he set the pup down along with the water.

"Do you know what for?" She questioned.

"_Ooooh_. You've already gotten in trouble, huh?" Natsu spoke like a seven year old that was teasing their classmate for getting in trouble.

She ignored him and waited for Mira's reply.

"I think your ID's ready. I could be mistaken."

"Really?!" Lucy shot up off of her stool, "Natsu watch him for a second will you?" She all but shoved the leash into his chest and quickly abandoned her water in exchange for darting up the stairs to the office.

"Someone's excited." Natsu laughed and rubbed his chest where she practically punched him.

"Can't blame her." Erza smiled. "I remember when I first got mine." She touched her pant pocket where she kept it, "It was very exciting."

"Hell yeah. When I got mine the first thing I did was shove it in that cops face that tried to arrest me for no good reason and didn't believe I was a part of Fairy Tail. Felt damn good." Natsu wore a smug grin as he finished. That'd been a really good day for him.

"Natsu that was rude of you." Mira scolded, "Don't stoop down to their level. Be the bigger person."

"I know, I know." Natsu ceased with that conversation, knowing if he went on he was only going to get a lecture and instead turned his attention to Plue who'd almost finished half his bowl of water.

Mira didn't look convinced but left it alone and went back into the kitchen to check on Erza's order.

Lucy, who had run all the way up the stairs and down the hallway, came to an abrupt stop as she reached the large wooden door she'd only seen once before. She hoped to God it was her ID. The teen wanted nothing more than that piece of plastic that told her she belonged somewhere. It made her cringe with embarrassment when she thought of that reason for wanting it, but it was one-hundred percent true. It would be nice to officially belong.

She gave the door three quick taps with the back of her hand and received a "come in" right after.

"Ah, Lucy." Makarov acknowledged her as he stood on top if his desk, staring intensely at his ceiling, "Good to see you again."

"You… too…" Lucy greeted him and sat down, not bothering to ask what he was doing, "Mira said you wanted to see me?"

"She said correctly." He hopped off his desk and landed with a soft thud, then walked over to his desk and pulled an envelope out of its left drawer. "This is for you."

The old man handed the envelope to her and she took it with eager fingers, "Is this my ID?"

Makarov replied with smile that almost covered his entire face, "Indeed it is!"

The teen, upon hearing his words, practically tore it open and pulled out a plastic card that had her first name, a picture, and bright pink words that read "Fairy Tail Member" on it. Lucy beamed at the sight of it in her hand. A few days earlier she'd been pulled aside by the old man and told he was going to have to at least put her first name on the card, which she was fine with, and also asked what her favorite color was. Lucy guessed the questions' purpose was for the title. Her eyes skimmed the entire thing, admiring the way it looked. Even the picture he had suddenly taken of her on the day of her interview looked nice. The final result was amazing and everything she could have asked for.

"Thank you!" She made her gratitude known and looked up at her, now official, boss.

"No, thank you. It's always my pleasure to welcome someone into the business."

Lucy could only smile at the man. She wanted to really let him know how much it meant to her, but couldn't find the words.

"Now, there are a few rules I have to run by you." He spoke again as he went to sit down on the chair next to her, "They're simple enough and pretty much common sense, so I don't think you'll have trouble following them. One, you mustn't do anything that'll damage our name. In this case I mean illegal things and whatnot. I don't care if you mess up a job, that's your responsibility."

"Reasonable." Lucy agreed.

"Second, you can't take more than thirty jobs a week. I know, I know "who the hell would take more than thirty jobs a week?!"" he added when Lucy's face changed to one of disbelief, "No one does. It's Natsu's fault we had to add that one in. Boy went on a job frenzy one week and thus the rule was born."

Lucy laughed. She felt she should've known it was his because of him.

"Third, you have to take at least two jobs a week. This goes along with the common sense I was talkin' about. You have to work. Of course, you can be excused if you have a good reason."

She nodded.

"Fourth and lastly, you have to enjoy yourself." He finished with his arms crossed over his chest. One of his personal missions was to make sure that everyone who joined had a good time and felt like FT was a good environment for them.

"Got it. I'm already having a good time thanks to everyone." She grinned, "So the fourth, especially, shouldn't be a problem.

Makarov replied, "Well then, I won't keep you any longer. You should expect things to get rowdy when they learn you got your card so be prepared." He laughed knowingly and gestured to the door, walking her out when she got up.

"Thank you again." She said it one last time and left the office with a bubbly smile.

* * *

Lucy didn't waste any time in going back downstairs. Her first instinct was to show Natsu the ID the boss had graced her with. It wasn't unusual, she thought, to want to show him first. Right? He was the one who introduced her to the place after all. So she hurried down to rejoin her new friends but stopped at the bottom, feeling a little stunned at what she saw.

In the short time she'd been talking to the boss, which had only been a few short minutes, the warehouse had been filled with at least two times more people than before. It wasn't an unpleasant sight, in fact Lucy liked crowds- made her feel like a small part of something big, if that made sense- but due to the sudden influx of people Lucy couldn't spot her former company.

Plue was the first she found, unsurprisingly- he was being passed around and positively eating up the attention he was getting- but other than that the others she was looking for were nowhere to be found in the sea of people.

_Maybe if I just walk through I'll find them… _She thought to herself and was immediately proved wrong when she entered the bustling crowd.

After a minute searching, that was futile it turned out, she gave up and sat down at an empty table near the right side of the warehouse and just looked out into the crowd with her chin in her hand. The sight she was looking at was almost identical to the one she saw when she first came. The place was bustling with laughter, drinking, and a small fight between what looked like a body-builder and… Gray? Lucy immediately averted her eyes as the man stripped off his pants. Yup, that was Gray.

She was in the middle of placing a bet on who would win the fight in her head when suddenly Natsu came crashing into her table. His body seemed to have an almost visible buzz to it as he straightened himself out, and Lucy thought for a moment he might've been going into a seizure. But as he stood up and she got a better look at him she realized he was just really, very happy.

It was kinda cute.

"Hey! When did you come down?" Natsu sat across from her and adjusted his scarf, "Sorry about Plue by the way. Once people started comin' in I couldn't keep them off him."

"It's fine." Lucy laughed and looked over at the puppy who was being fed a cracker, "He loves it."

"So? What'd the old man want?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"Oh yeah. Hold on…" She fumbled with her skirt's pocket and pulled the ID out, eagerly laying it in front of him, "I finally got it!"

Natsu beamed at her excitement and picked the card up, inspecting it, "Nice!"

"Mm. I was told the rules and everything." She stated and put her elbows on the table, leaning forward just a little.

"All the rules…?" His mouth slanted into a slight frown.

"Uh-huh. I can't take more than thirty jobs a week." She teased, "How do you even take _thirty_ jobs-?"

"Long story. Don't have time to explain it." He cut her off and stuck her ID in the air, "HEY GUYS! LUCY GOT HER CARD!"

The teen yelled into the crowd, gaining their attention and momentarily cutting off Plue's unending source of affection. Then without warning everyone broke out into cheers, roars, and yells, congratulating Lucy on joining them. The last time they'd done that they thought Natsu had finally gotten a girlfriend, an awkward memory for Lucy, but this time she was more thank welcoming the boisterous voices. So much so she thought she might shed a few tears. She didn't of course.

"So I _was_ right! Congratulations Lucy!" Mira stopped by their table with a tray full of food balanced on her hip and spoke with vigor to the blonde, "It's going to be loads of fun having you around. I have to get these orders going but I'll stop by again later if you're here." She ruffled the girl's hair with a warm smile and was off, effortlessly balancing her tray while dodging the rowdy movements of some half-drunken folk.

"Congratulations." Erza came up behind her with a smile of her own and sat down next to the blonde, "Glad to have you with us."

"Thank you!"

Natsu grinned excitedly as more and more people came up to welcome Lucy into the family/business, with the exception of when Gray showed up wearing nothing but his boxers. The teen, he noticed, looked a little uncomfortable at first, well, not uncomfortable but… overwhelmed? He couldn't think of the right word. Anyway, after a few minutes her shoulders relaxed and her smile, the real one-he could already tell the difference, he was very observant actually-, spread larger across her face.

It made him happy.

Hours of drinking and celebrating passed eventfully. Natsu had introduced Lucy to the sport of barrel surfing, which she did _not_ participate in, games were played among the sober people, clothes were somehow exchanged between the _not_ so sober people, and the boss, who had thrown in the towel working while everyone else was partying, came down and started his usual drinking contest with Cana- plus anyone else that wanted to join in. Now that was around two in the morning and most people had either blacked out or gone home, Lucy stirred in her spot, waking up to the sound of a blender.

"Hmm?" The girl groaned and picked her head up off her table, squinting her eyes at her surroundings. Bodies lay unconscious, strewn across the warehouse and if Lucy hadn't known any better she would've thought she woke up in some human meat locker in a horror movie.

The girl blinked and tried to get a better grasp on reality, letting her dream world float away as she sat up. The warehouse was quiet, save for the few people that were still drinking, and Lucy took that with a grateful head. She wasn't full on _drunk_, but she did have a strong buzz. The only other time she had gotten drunk was on her seventeenth birthday. She snuck some wine out of their cellar and took it back to her room, practically pouring it down her throat as soon as she got it, a mistake she now knew but it tasted so good at the time. Given how she woke up the next morning, that was the last time she went near an alcoholic beverage. Mira, thankfully, had given her something that wouldn't betray her the next morning when requesting a drink.

She looked at her table which was made up of sleeping bodies, and then pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time.

_Two-thirty, huh…?_ She thought to herself but had the process interrupted when she felt something move next to her thigh.

The blonde looked down to see Natsu had made himself at home on the bench they were both on, his body curled inward as he slept on his side. Lucy kept quiet as the teen shifted to a more comfortable position, which didn't look comfortable at all- she was actually worried for his neck-, and let a deep breath out as he finally settled for one. The girl put her chin in her hand and got lost in his sleeping face. Rarely did she see him expressionless, so what was happening in front of her seemed almost like a treat.

Without thinking, the blonde stuck her index finger out and poked the teen's cheek, giggling when she saw his brows furrow and his mouth slightly tighten.

It took her three seconds to realize her actions.

Immediately her face reddened and she snatched her hand away, holding it firmly on the table.

_Oh my god what am I doing?! You don't just go and touch people's faces while they're sleeping! Let alone someone you've only known for a little over two weeks! _Though, it could be his fault that she felt so familiar with him. It was an odd ability he had, she decided six days into knowing him. He made people feel comfortable around him. _Oh, don't blame this on him! _

As she was about to get lost in her embarrassment and go out back to dig a grave for her fast beating heart, she heard Mira call her name from the bar. Her head shot up and looked over to the white haired woman, noticing she had that body-builder from earlier with her as well as her sister.

Carefully, she got up from her seat and made her way over to them, cautious not to step on any bodies as she did. "Does this happen often?" She asked as she plopped down on a stool, gratefully taking a glass of water Mira had poured for her.

"Oh, almost every night." Mira confessed, not at all fazed by the earlier event it seemed. "Though I think they went a little harder on the booze today."

"Every night?" She questioned, amazed a person could have the stamina to do that.

"Almost. Today's a Friday, or yesterday was, so that gave them a little more incentive to go at it. Including you getting your ID of course." She smiled and threw a wet towel over at the body-builder, "Can you start wiping down the bar for me Elfman?"

"Sure thing, sis." The man replied and went to his new task.

Lucy, for a moment, wanted to comment but left it alone. She figured they probably got the "YOU'RE RELATED?!" thing all the time.

"I should probably be getting home… Have you seen Plue?"

Mira chuckled, "He's dead asleep over by Wendy and Erza." She pointed to the trio, "He dozed off around the same time you did. I tried to get him next to you, but he wouldn't budge. I don't think he'll be waking up anytime soon. If you want I could look after him tonight? We have dog food stocked; we feed strays from time to time. You probably don't have the energy to carry him and he most definitely doesn't have the energy to walk." She laughed and took the empty glass from in front of Lucy, placing it in the sink.

"You'd think the little guy got drunk himself." Lisanna added as she passed by with a tray full of used plates and glasses, "Sis, you want this in the back?"

Mira nodded and Lucy replied, "That would be amazing… Wait… are you three cleaning by _yourselves_?" She questioned and looked around for others tending to the place, seeing none.

"We are." She confirmed and added, "But don't think about offering to help! You need to go get some sleep. We'll be done in thirty minutes anyway. That time includes sending these folk home."

"Are you sur-"

"_Absolutely_." She cut Lucy off and with deadly precision, took a used cork and threw it at Natsu's head, waking him up.

"Huh?! WHA-?!" The rosy haired teen sprung up from his sleeping position, almost falling onto the floor, "Wha's goin' on?"

"Natsu!" Mira called to him, "Come take Lucy home!"

"N-No, I'm fine. I can walk home by myself, _really_." The blonde tried to refuse the company, given she was still embarrassed about poking the guy's cheek, but to no avail.

"I'm sure you can but you're not going to." Mira showed off her iron will with a kind smile and Lucy knew she wasn't getting out of it. "It's late and Natsu's not doing anything anyway."

_Well… he was sleeping…_

"Okay… hold on," Natsu suddenly appeared next to Lucy, scratching his nose, "what am I being told to do?"

"You don't mind taking Lucy home, do you?" Mira asked and knew the boy wouldn't have a problem with it in the slightest.

"Oh. Sure." He looked down at Lucy to his left, noticing she looked very… focused? on something in front of her and went on, "We leavin' now or…"

"Yea-Yes." She replied and got up, saying a thank you to Mira and petting Plue goodbye before exiting the warehouse with Natsu trailing behind.

The blonde stepped out onto the street, thankful for the breeze that blew onto her still heated face. She knew there was nothing to be so embarrassed over, though one of the reasons it was still affecting her was probably due to the fact that she was still _slightly_ drunk- she could tell by the way she kept on swaying as she walked. It also didn't help that the source of her embarrassment was walking less than a foot behind her and being oddly quiet- which didn't help her runaway thoughts any. God, she just knew that if natural causes didn't kill her one day then her overactive imagination would.

Natsu, who was also a little drunk himself, looked at Lucy's back, wondering what was up with her while also noticing how upright seemed. They'd been celebrating and laughing together not that long ago so he was confused as to why she seemed so reserved. Maybe she was a quiet drunk?

Of course, he just didn't know she was fighting a downhill battle with her head.

"You okay?" He finally asked after six minutes of them walking in silence, not being able to take the quiet anymore.

She turned her head to cast him a sideways glance, "Yeah. I'm fine. Just tired I guess."

Not completely buying it, Natsu sped up a little to match her pace and reach her side, observing her expression, "You sure?"

Lucy was quiet for a moment but then blurted out her next words without thinking, "Sorry…"

He raised a brow, "For what?"

"I yelled at you…" She was bringing up the argument they had the other day. _Why now of all times?_ She thought to herself in frustration. The girl knew alcohol could make people a little loose lipped but never had she experienced it for herself.

"What are you talkin' abou- _Oh_. You mean when we got your bed?"

She nodded and Natsu couldn't help but laugh a little.

"I thought we settled that? I wasn't mad then and I'm not mad now."

"So?" She replied curtly, "Doesn't mean I can't still feel bad about it."

"It kinda does."

"Does not."

"Does too."

"Does _not_."

"Does too!"

"Are we _really_ gonna do this?" She cut their five year old style argument short.

"Until you agree with me yeah."

"Fine! I won't feel bad about it anymore. _Excuse_ me for caring about it."

Natsu chuckled at her expression. Her faced had twisted into a somewhat pouty look. "I didn't say you couldn't care about it. Just don't feel bad. That was what… a week ago?" He counted on his fingers.

"Okay, okay." She conceded and rubbed her nose, beginning to really feel the chill.

"Is that what was bothering you?"

_Not really…_ Though it _was_ something that had stuck to the back of her mind. "Yes…"

"Hm. You worry too much."

_Understatement of the year…_ Lucy thought.

The rest of their walk went by slowly. They chatted about trivial things and for some reason had a contest of who could kick a rock they found the farthest. Natsu won. But only because Lucy was wearing a skirt and couldn't use her full strength, she had said. Natsu challenged her to a rematch on a day where she was wearing pants.

Lucy walked the steps up to her house and unlocked the door. She stepped in and Natsu followed behind, not thinking about his actions. They didn't register with Lucy either. She was too preoccupied with not falling over as she took her shoes off to really register she was letting him in.

"I'm gonna crash on your couch." He announced and flopped down on the piece of furniture.

" 'Kay." She replied and suddenly got an idea. The girl went to grab a glass of water, asking Natsu if he wanted some to which she received a "nah." and then exited the house from her backdoor, stepping onto her deck.

Lucy looked up at the sky and smiled.

The stars would always remind her of her mom. Some nights they would lie in her garden and just stargaze. Layla would teach her about all the different constellations, though to Lucy it sounded like her mom was speaking another language, but she didn't mind. The woman would always have the best expression on when looking at the stars. It was like she was constantly being amazed by them despite looking at them all the time. Lucy had once decided that her mom was at her most beautiful when talking about the stars.

Lucy, without taking her eyes off the sky, laid down on her deck and crossed her arms over her stomach, getting lost in the colors.

"What are you doing?" Natsu appeared in the doorway she left open, looking down at the girl with confusion.

"I thought you were going to sleep?" She replied.

"Well I was- oh, and thanks by the way. I just realized I didn't even ask to come in…"

"It's fine. You walked me over here at this hour. It would've been rude of me to send you back so late."

"Back to the question," He stepped onto the deck and walked over to Lucy, "what're you doing?"

"Stargazing." She replied simply.

In response Natsu looked up and noticed how well you could see the stars, "Woah."

"Yeah woah." Lucy was happy about his response. "Care to join me?"

He didn't reply. He just took a spot next to her and stretched his legs and arms out before getting comfortable.

After a few minutes of companionable silence, Lucy felt the need to ask, "Hey Natsu, do you believe magic's real? Not like the cheesy tricks you see on TV but _real_ magic." She didn't know why she asked, only that it felt right to in that moment. Maybe seeing the starts was making her reminiscent of the time she asked her mom about it.

"I do actually." He replied. "My dad told me once that he thought love and stuff like that was magic. He gave me this _really_ long explanation that gave me a headache but it made sense after a while. So yeah. Haven't thought about it in a while though. Why?"

Lucy couldn't respond for second but quickly gathered enough composure to say, "No reason. Just wondering."

She didn't dare say anything for the next four minutes.

The night went on and they fell into their usual banter before finally falling asleep, letting the stars be their blanket.

* * *

**A/N:** _whoahoho_~ where did that last line come from? so cheesy oh goodness. sorry it was too much for me to erase it. love it.

ANYWAY, sorry again for taking longer than usual. Once I finally got the urge to write I got sick... then when I got to around the middle of this I got sick again. Damn allergies. I'm actually _still_ sick but I felt bad about how long the wait was getting.

I really hope you all liked the Erza/Jellal back story. I'd been thinking about what kind of history they'd have in an AU- gotta carry the angst over somehow- and that was what I came up with. I know it ended up bein' kinda long but I was super happy with it. Now I really wanna write a story with Erza bein' the queen of illegal fight clubs... Also for anyone wondering about where Happy was he was there at the warehouse. I forgot to write that in. I would do it now but my brain is about to shut down. I'll most likely write him into the next chapter. damn i feel a little bad about leaving him out now...

As for Lucy and Natsu :))))))) I wanted to connect them with the whole love is magic thing and have that be something special for Lucy. Also stars are a great bonding time device. Quick question, I know this is fiction and it doesn't really matter I guess, but does it seem off to any of you that they're so comfy with each other already or is it something I'm over thinking? Should I ease off the friendliness a little? I know people can click easily and quickly, but I'd love to know what you think. Your opinions and feedback meant the world :) As always thank you for reading and reviewing. I hope you enjoyed.


	9. Chapter 9

"You're gonna lose."

"…"

"No, you're _definitely_ gonna lose."

"…"

"I can feel it. You're close… You're gonna cave."

"…"

"…damn it… a little longer…"

"…"

"You're… not gonna win… again…"

"Natsu, I don't think this is good for your-"

"Not now. Concentra- _ah shit_!" Natsu squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them harshly, practically crying with the way they were watering.

He'd just been in the fifty-eighth staring contest of his life, one he'd been _damn sure_ he was gonna win, he would've bet his scarf on it, thankfully he didn't, and his cat, Happy, had just succeeded in keeping his champion title. So far their score was thirty-three to twenty-five but Natsu was slowly and surely going to turn those numbers around. He'd be damned if he let someone who _only_ ate fish beat him at something as simple as a staring contest.

"Damn it!" He opened his eyes back up and pointed a finger at his smug looking cat that was sitting on the bar's counter, "I'm gonna kick your ass next time. Just wait."

Lisanna laughed and set a burger along with a plate of fish down in front of the frustrated teen and the winning cat, "I told you you were going to lose."

"Yeah, thanks for the encouragement." He grumbled and stuffed five fries into his mouth, chewing angrily and giving Happy a look.

"He's just too good." She laughed again and pet the blue animal's head, eliciting a soft meow from him that Natsu childishly squinted his eyes at.

"Not for long." He replied when he was done swallowing, "He's gonna slip up sometime. It's soon- I can feel it."

"Are you two seriously discussing how good a _cat_ is at staring contests?" Gray, who was shirtless of course, came up to the pair with an _almost_ condescending tone coloring his voice and took a seat next to Natsu.

"I'd like to hear you say that again after you get your ass whooped by a "cat"." He mimicked Gray's voice at the word cat, making a face along with it.

"He's right Gray." Lisanna spoke up as she set some glasses into the sink and shrugged her shoulders, "He's just _really_ good. No one but Natsu can beat him."

"Bet I could."

"Oh you wanna bet?!" Natsu bought into his goading tone and stood up.

"I just said I did! Where's your head at?"

"Not in my ass like _yours_ that's for sure!"

"You wanna-!"

"Natsu, Gray," Lisanna placed a hand on both of their shoulders, gaining their attention, "Sis has a headache and is trying to sleep it off in the back room, so I suggest you don't piss her off by waking her up with your petty fighting. You wanna see what happens when she wakes up angry be my guest but neither of you are going to have asses to get your heads out of by the end of it."

The two of them were almost visibly shivering as memories of a past Mira, one that wasn't all sunshine and kindness, flooded back into their minds. "R-right…" They spoke in unison and Natsu went back to eating while Gray gave into the talk about Happy being a stare-down champion and engaged the cat in a contest.

Lisanna nodded and grinned knowingly to herself as she went to take a customer's order. _You can always count on men uniting when their heads are in danger of being severely smacked by a woman's wrath. Well, at least the men I know,_ she thought and laughed one more time before greeting her new customer.

Natsu finished his burger and fries in fewer than six minutes, his usual time, and waved "see ya" to Gray as the guy left the warehouse a defeated man, both of them forgetting they'd almost just gotten into another fist fight. He'd only been able to keep his eyes open for a measly twenty-two seconds, an average record for newbies trying to win against Happy, and accepted his defeat gracefully, swearing he'd beat him but left that for another day due to having plans to get to.

Now Natsu was once again left with only himself and his thoughts, plus a cat that was happily munching on his choice of fish. Something that was happening too often lately, he thought- the him "being alone with his thoughts" thing.

He didn't like being alone. At all. Which bothered him some. Though he'd _never_ admit he was actually lonely, not even to himself. Happy was with him, sure, and he was always good company but seeing as though he was cat and couldn't really converse, it was close enough to being alone. It made him feel listless and just… _weird_.

Was it odd of him to not like to be alone? It didn't seem like other people had a problem with it, from what he'd seen at least. Levy had always said she needed at least an hour a day by herself so that she could do some reading, which he could never understand- reading for an hour seemed a little like hell to him. Gray often did things by himself without looking like it bugged him- Juvia would always catch up with him somehow though- and Erza liked to tend to her weapons by herself some days, saying it was "nice to be alone with the quiet of her own company."

Natsu picked his arms up over his head and stretched, shaking the thoughts out of his head when he was done. Thinking too hard wasn't like him. He was simple minded, as he'd been told _many_ times, so he guessed that continuously trying to figure out things like why being alone made him feel weird would get him nowhere. Instead, he would just take action and make sure he wasn't left by himself. Simple as that. That way, that odd feeling wouldn't bother him.

It was best to avoid it.

"Hey, Natsu?"

The teen looked up from his hands, that he'd been subconsciously rubbing together, and saw a terrible looking Mira come out from the hallway next to the bar, "Mira? I thought you were tryin' to sleep a headache off?"

The woman groaned and rubbed her temple as she walked closer- even her outfit resembled how awful she felt, "I am but I forgot I was planning to give Lucy something today."

"Lucy?" Natsu raised a brow at the blonde's name. He'd just been thinking about her earlier. She hadn't been around the warehouse in a few days and it was making him a little curious. They'd taken a job together at the beginning of the week, it was her first one- a job helping an old grandma plant new flowers in her big ass garden, and it'd gone really well. She'd been glowing by the end of it but he hadn't really known it was just sweat. Anyway, that was the last he'd seen of her all week.

"Yeah." She reached into her sweatpants pocket, pulled out a piece of paper that'd been folded into a square and stuck it into Natsu's hand, "She asked for a recipe last week but I kept forgetting to give it to her. Would you mind very much doing it for me?"

He eyed the paper curiously and nodded, "Sure. I was probably gonna go see her later anyway. Haven't seen her around in a while."

At his words, Mira's face took a small break from being twisted into discomfort and turned into one of realization- with a little discomfort still in the mix of course, "You're right… I haven't seen her either… I wonder if she's doing alright."

"Guess I should go find out." Natsu replied regularly but his curiosity was growing to an uncomfortable level, "What recipe did she ask you for anyway?"

"She wanted to learn how to make those jalapeno poppers we serve. I suppose she has a taste for them." Mira shrugged and said, "Let me know how she's doing when you see her and tell her I said hi." before turning to retreat back into the hallway.

Natsu watched her as she disappeared and began laughing to himself when he finally remembered why Lucy would want the recipe. He recalled asking her if she could make them one morning and being slightly disappointed when she said no. It wasn't even disappointment, really. _Did that actually bother her? _He thought as he continued his laughter and walked out of the warehouse with Happy nestled onto his shoulder, she was too funny.

The teen reached into his pocket once he was outside and took his phone into his hand. His calloused fingers put together a text letting Lucy know he was coming over and didn't bother waiting for a reply that said he could- or rather he just didn't think to wait for one. Once he was finished he shoved it back into his pocket, said "see ya" to Romeo and Wendy who were eating an early lunch together outside, and began his walk to Lucy's house, wondering what she was up to.

* * *

It took him eleven minutes to get to her home from the warehouse, the usual time it takes, though he was considering getting a bike. He didn't mind walking but it would make the trip easier. Now, he stood on her porch and rang the doorbell three times.

While waiting he took a step back to take the house in. He still admired it to be honest. It was a huge thing, something he probably mentioned a million times already, but it still got to him. The wood was a such a rich color, the brick that made up the steps to the house looked worn but in a good way, and there was a strange feeling he got when he was near it. A good one, but strange. Damn… a lot of things recently, he just now noticed, he was describing as strange… There was just somethin' really homey about the house that felt… nostalgic maybe?

Natsu was quickly pulled away from his thoughts when he heard the door unlock and saw it open to reveal Lucy along with Plue eagerly wagging his tail in anticipation.

Natsu smiled.

"Sorry it took so long for me to answer." She immediately apologized and opened the door wider, "I was in the middle of… is that a _blue_… cat?" Lucy looked at Happy in astonishment and quickly rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing correctly.

"Oh yeah-" He grabbed him from his shoulder and held him up for Lucy to see, "This is Happy! He's one of my best pals."

"Okay… wai- hold on. Do you want to explain why he's blue?" She wasn't going to let him skip over that vital piece of information.

"Just is." He replied simply.

"But, how… wha-?"

"I learned not to question it." He cut her off and walked in, "No one knows why he's blue. I just found him in the woods one day. His mom wasn't around so I have no idea if she was blue too."

Lucy sighed, there was always something new with him. She didn't really mind but it was like being swept up into a whirlwind most times he spoke and it would be nice to experience a calm breeze instead, "Okay, introduce him to me again."

"What?"

"I didn't greet him properly! He's one of your best pals, right?" She stuck her hands on her jean clad hips, "I want a redo."

_Pfft. Weird…_ he thought.

"Okay then, Happy," He held him outward and Lucy put a smile on her face, "this is Lucy. Lucy, this is Happy."

"Nice to meet you." Lucy greeted him and held her hands out for Natsu to put him there, "He's cute." she stated as the cat sniffed her curiously and decided whether or not he was going to like her.

"That's what everyone says." He agreed and bent down to pet Plue who wanted attention from the teen, "Look Happy this is the guy you've been smelling on me."

The cat looked down at the dog with squinted eyes and Lucy asked, "Is he okay with dogs?"

"Don't really know…" he got up and eyed happy, looking at his reaction, "He seems okay... Wanna let him down?"

"Uh… You sure?" Lucy was hesitant. She'd seen her share of Animal Planet. She knew of some bad reactions cats had to dogs. Some of them acted like dogs were the bane of their existence.

"Yeah. It'll be fine." Natsu, who was now a little eager to find out, took Happy from Lucy and set him down on the wooden floor, letting the animals decide if they liked each other.

Plue immediately went up to the cat, sniffing curiously and Happy had on the most "what the hell" expression Lucy had ever seen on an animal.

"Fight, fight, fight, figh-"

"Stop that!" Lucy cut off his chanting with a smack to the shoulder, "The last thing I need right now is a fight happening in my living room."

For a few more seconds Happy seemed less than pleased with the situation he'd been put into but with a final curious sniff from both of them, he settled for tolerating the puppy.

"See?" Natsu grinned and crossed his arms, "Nothin' to worry about."

"That was easier than I thought…" she mumbled and looked over to her guest, "So? What's up? Did you need something?" Getting a sudden text from him saying he was coming over had sent her into a frenzy of trying to make herself look presentable and open to company. It was actually very stressful.

"Right." Within the short time of being there he'd already forgotten his purpose in going, "Mira asked me to give you this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the squared piece of paper, holding it up, "Said she kept forgetting to get it to you."

Immediately, the blonde snatched it out of his hand, unfolded it to look at the content, then quickly folded it back and stuck it in her own pocket, "You… did you see what it was?" She questioned, trying her best to act nonchalant.

Natsu wanted to laugh but knew that would give him away, "Nah. I didn't look." He wanted to save that easy tease material for later.

"Oh, good." She looked a little too relieved for her act and it made him want to laugh even more. "Is that all you needed?"

"Well, that's all I was asked to do." He replied as she leaned against her couch, pulling her hair to one side, "Why? You busy?"

"…No. Not really." Lucy scratched her nose and adjusted her shirt, feeling a bit awkward and hoping to god it didn't show.

"In that case you wanna do something?" Natsu asked with a hint of hope that his day wouldn't be so loner-ish after all, "I've had nothin' to do all day, plus I've already done my fill of jobs."

Lucy laughed, she wasn't surprised at that, but the invitation he just extended, however, elicited a not so happy reaction from her.

It wasn't that she didn't want to hang out; it was just that she didn't want to hang out.

If that made any sense at _all_?

The girl had spent her whole week in a rut of sorts. It was the kind where you want company, but don't want to go seeking it out. Her motivation to do anything had been completely shut off, like there was a literal switch for it only she couldn't flip it back on and nothing was pleasing her. It'd been ridiculous and her _knowledge_ of it being ridiculous only made it worse. Her days had practically melded together and the only thing to come out of it was an extremely depressing journal entry written by a cereal fueled mind.

Her problem was that she felt lonely. She felt lonely and yet she didn't want to do the one thing that would help that. The teen had been lonely and it was her own damn fault. _God_ did she wish she could turn off her thoughts for at least two minutes…

It had just been a shitty week and honestly, she was surprised she was able to keep it together long enough to have a conversation with him.

"Um… sure." She tried to smile convincingly, knowing that getting out was most likely going to be good for her- especially considering who the other person was. Natsu, in the time she'd known him, had always been good for a laugh.

"Alright cool." He replied and bent down to pick Happy up, putting him back onto his shoulder.

Silence.

"…"

"… …"

"… … …"

"…So…?" Lucy's voice drifted off as she looked at Natsu, waiting for him to do something.

"What're you doing?" Natsu asked.

"_Me_? What are _you_ doing?" She gestured toward him.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"How should I know? You're the one who asked."

"Does that matter?" He tilted his head slightly to the side, thinking, "Uh… How about the park? Pretty sure these two wouldn't mind going. There's also a place near there that lets you eat outside so we could get some lunch." Natsu suggested, already forgetting he just had a burger earlier, "Pretty sure I went into a food coma there once." He burst into a loud bout of chuckling at his words, finding the phrase "food coma" completely hilarious.

Lucy shook her head but grinned at his silliness. His laugh was a unique one, always rambunctious and loud, and every time she heard it a smile was always pulled onto her face. It was really infectious.

"That almost sounds like a date." She joked and went over to her hall closet to pull out her boots.

"Guess so." He agreed casually, not picking up the fact that she was messing with him.

The girl accidentally hit her head on the clothes rack at his reaction, "Y-You-" She faced him with pink cheeks, "You're supposed to _deny_ it."

"Why?" He tilted his head again, really not getting it.

Lucy almost wanted to hit her head on the rack again, "You- Just… nevermind." She gave up and bent down to pull her shoes on.

"Okay but I still don't see why…"

She sighed and went about getting the rest of her things.

* * *

They arrived at the park about forty minutes later- it would've been faster if Natsu hadn't made them stop for a Frisbee. The teen had insisted on getting one when they left her house, saying no park experience was complete without a Frisbee throwing competition, and dragged her into the nearest store he could find. It took even longer due to them not being able to decide on a color. They stood there for six minutes arguing about it. Lucy had wanted a pink one and Natsu was refusing to buy one that wasn't red, saying pink was a little too girly for him, which rightly prompted her to throw his hair color into the conversation. Eventually he gave in and let her get the pink one, not without two minutes of grumbling to himself afterward of course.

Now they stood near the pond she'd almost been arrested at, a story she was withholding from him for obvious reasons, having the Frisbee competition he'd been talking about. She was up by three, much to her satisfaction and much to Natsu's aggravation. He wasn't about to lose two competitions in one day.

"…don't catch it, don't catch it, don't catc- damn it!" He'd been chanting under his breath but yelled when she caught his toss easily. She was up by four now.

"What's the matter?" Lucy teased as she tied her hair up, getting a little more serious now that she was so ahead, "Upset?"

"_No_!" Natsu sounded like quite the five year old, "Just throw it!"

"Okay but if you miss this one this counts as the rock kicking rematch." She demanded, keeping the Frisbee until he replied.

"No way." He refused- only due to the fact that was probably the only competition left he could win that day, "That's somethin' completely different. S'got nothing to do with this."

Lucy clicked her tongue, something she never used to do but had somehow gotten into the habit of, and retorted, "_Fine_…" promptly throwing the Frisbee as soon as her mouth shut.

While it was in the air, she got the sudden idea to say, very quickly, "loserhastogobuydrinks!"

To her glee, the abrupt string of words confused her opponent and made him miss the flying disc by quite the distance. Lucy couldn't hold in her laughter as he didn't hold back on showing his frustration, letting loose words not too pleasant. It was hilarious to her- the way he was so competitive. She had only known him for a short time and already she'd experienced more competitions with him than anyone she'd ever met.

"That didn't count!" He told the blonde as he jogged over to her, "I call foul play."

"It does too count." She crossed her arms, "You didn't catch it. I had nothing to do with that."

"You confused me!"

"It counts."

"Does not." He stepped a little closer, leaning over her the slightest bit.

"Does too." She replied and stayed put, plotting to confuse him again.

"Does _not_."

"Does too!"

"Does not!"

"Does not!"

"Does too! …wait… _shit_." Natsu brought a palm to his forehead, groaning with regret at the realization of what he just said.

"Haha!" Lucy laughed at her opponent's reaction, "I can't believe that worked!"

"Yeah, yeah." Natsu replied in an annoyed tone, looking away from the blonde. She'd gotten him twice now. _Twice_.

"Oh come on." She leaned around him to get a look at his face, "You're not mad are you?" The girl was beginning to worry he was the type who got seriously mad when they lost at something…

Natsu looked at her from the side of his eye, seeing she was concerned and decided to let it go. He wasn't _mad_, though it was a bummer to lose… "No. Just a little ticked you got me twice."

Lucy laughed again, her voice taking on a silvery tone, "It's funny though, right? You have to be able to laugh at it at least a _little_."

She continued her with her giggling and Natsu let out a deep breath. He knew she was right.

"Alright- loser gets drinks." He repeated her words and walked over to the park table Plue was tied to and Happy was laying on, the two of them taking a break from their earlier activities, "What'd you want?"

Lucy followed him, petting Plue for a moment before answering, "I'll just take a water."

Natsu gave a nod, asked if she was okay to be alone with the animals, and then jogged off toward the nearest vending machine with his change in hand.

Lucy let a sigh escape her mouth, a little breathless- throwing a Frisbee around proved to be more of a workout than people made it seem. Speaking of which, she remembered she really needed to start doing that again… She groaned at the thought. Working out was great and all, it keeps you healthy but… God did she hate it. She hated it with a burning passion but staying fit wasn't just going to magically happen.

_Ugh, just stop thinking about it._ She willed the thoughts of early morning jogs away, deciding leaving that thought process for later was best and stepped away from the table, planning to see how far she could throw the Frisbee.

_Three, two, one… _She counted down in her head and threw the disc with the most force she could muster, beaming at the distance it flew. _Nice_. Lucy mentally patted herself on the shoulder and then turned to her friends, "I'll be right back."

Quickly, she ran over to where the thing landed, looking around for a few seconds before she spotted it and bent over to pick it up. At the moment she did, a whistle, one that she could already tell belonged to an absolute idiot, was heard behind her.

"Nice view."

Lucy stood upright, abandoning the Frisbee on the ground, and turned to face the source of the honeyed voice behind her, confirming that he was in fact an idiot, "No." She stated simply and tried to turn away when the man spoke again.

"Wait hold on- let me get that for you." He flashed a grin at her, one that wouldn't be unpleasant to ignorant eyes but Lucy couldn't help but be grossed out, and grabbed the Frisbee.

"Okay… thank you for that. Now I'll just-" The blonde reached for the disc but the man pulled his arm back, keeping it out of her reach. "_Really_?"

He only laughed, "I just wanna talk t'you some more. You come here alone?

Lucy intentionally groaned very loudly, hoping the guy would get the picture, "No. I didn't. There's a cat and a dog waiting for me. Is that all? Can I have that back now?"

"What're you in a rush for?" He grinned again, keeping the Frisbee up and away from her hands as she reached for it a second time, "D'you wanna come hang out with me and a couple friends? We're over by the- **MMPH**!" Suddenly, a tennis ball came hurling into the man's face, landing a hit right on his cheekbone and causing him to fall over onto the grass, spewing a string of words not appropriate for anyone's ears.

Lucy flinched and immediately turned toward where the ball came from, looking for the source.

Natsu.

"What the hell?!" She yelled over to the teen who, despite having probably injured the man still lying on the ground spilling out curse words and spit, looked completely innocent.

"Hey Lucy." Natsu greeted her normally as he came upon the pair.

"Don't "Hey Lucy." me!" She gestured toward the man cradling his face, "What the hell did you do that for?!"

"He looked like he was bothering you." From his tone and expression, Lucy could see the teen had no issue with what he'd just done.

"Okay yes, he was, but you don't just _chuck_ a tennis ball at his face!" She scolded him with furrowed eyebrows and a stern tone, "What if you broke something?!"

"Yeah man… fuck's your _problem_…?" The nameless person on the ground managed to spit the words out, eliciting a change in expression from Natsu.

"Oh shut it Mr. "Nice View". You're no better." Lucy quickly shut the man down, "Where'd this ball come from anyway?"

"Found in in the bathroom."

"Ew man! You threw a fuckin' toilet ball at my head?!"

"That's rig-" Natsu was about to step into the man's space when Lucy stopped him by putting a hand on his chest.

"I have this." She gave the rosy haired teen a look, telling him to back off for a second and nodded when he stepped a few feet away.

Lucy put a hand on her forehead and rubbed. _How quickly things can turn south_, she thought.

The blonde helped the man up, releasing him as quickly as she grabbed him, "Are you okay?"

For a moment he hesitated, looking over at Natsu who had crossed him arms and set his face into a hard glare but then replied, "Yeah I'm good. Who the hell's this toilet ball psycho over here?"

"Shut up." Lucy stared daggers at the man, "Just… stop talking for a second."

One of the things Lucy hated most were men who thought saying whatever they wanted, to whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted, was okay. Too often had she been the literal object of attention and inappropriate stares during her life in her father's business circle, and in turn she knew a thing or two about how to handle guys like the one in front of her. It pissed her off, sure, but getting furious and lashing out at the man, in her own experience, wasn't the best way to go. But now that she didn't need to worry about damaging her father's reputation, she wanted to openly converse with that type of man while in complete control of the topic.

"Why did you come up to me?" She asked. It was a simple question but one she'd been dying to ask for years.

"Whaddya mean why?" He gave her a confused look.

"I _mean_, what made you think coming up to me, commenting on "the view", and keeping my Frisbee away from me so I was forced to talk to you was a good idea?"

"…I don't know… just normal…" The man was mumbling now, beginning to feel awkward.

"Let me tell you something." Lucy pushed her bangs behind her ear and stepped a little closer to him, still glaring, "This whole thing, the way you approached me, is not okay. It doesn't make me want to go hang out with you or your friends. In fact, it makes me want to throw a toilet ball at your head." She couldn't help but let out a small laugh during the words "toilet ball". "Telling girls you _don't_ _know_, and this is key, they provide a nice view doesn't make them happy- it makes them feel grossed out. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

He nodded with averted eyes, rubbing the back of his collared neck. He would've left already it weren't for the buffed up guy practically staring into his soul and the chick's tone. If he walked away he'd probably get beat up by both of them…

"You can't treat people like that. If you really want to talk to someone, instead of the way you just approached me, try something _nice_, alright? Next time there might not be someone willing to talk to you like this. If you get hit with something worse than a toilet ball because of your behavior, don't say I didn't warn you."

Natsu shoved his hands into his pockets, a little displeased Lucy was still talking to the guy. He'd just gotten back to their table with three waters, eager to start a new competition with the ball he found but she'd been nowhere in sight. He'd scanned the area and what his eyes had been met with was nothing short of irritating. She stood there, obviously annoyed, trying to reach for her Frisbee with some bastard keeping it out of her reach. He hardly had time to think before the tennis ball left his hand and flew into the man's skull. Natsu hadn't felt an ounce of shame at that.

But this was weird.

Lucy was still talking to the guy previously harassing her… and making him… _apologize_? Both of his brows rose in astonishment at the new development. She had actually gotten the guy to say he was sorry. Never, in all his encounters with men like that, had he ever heard one of them say the words "I'm sorry".

Lucy watched the man go back to wherever he came from, happy he was finally doing so, and turned back to Natsu, giving him a face.

"What?" He asked as she walked back over to him, Frisbee and tennis ball in hand.

"I'm still wondering why you thought it was a good idea to _throw a ball_ at his head." The blondes arm's crossed again, for the millionth time it seemed.

"He was messing with you. Seemed like the fastest way to get him to stop." He answered simply, still not feeling bad about it.

Lucy let her head fall into her hand, laughing dryly despite herself, "Okay fine. Just, next time something like that happens, which hopefully it won't, let me handle it. I was doing fine before you intervened but… thanks I guess."

Even if it was bad to just suddenly throw something at a person's head, Lucy couldn't deny that she was a little happy Natsu had done that for her. It was sweet in a violent, illogical way…? Okay that wasn't the best description of it but the fact that he wanted to help her was really nice. Help during situations like that was never something offered to her during her father's parties, or parties she was forced to attend to, when she could practically feel stares coming from a variety of men on her person. The funny thing was, thought it really _wasn't_ funny, they were mostly after what getting with her would gain them. They all thought her father's favor was something she had to give. When really, she didn't even have it herself.

"Are you hungry yet?" Lucy asked the teen, letting her frustration drift off, "I want to see that restaurant that put you into a food coma."

Natsu chuckled. Those words never failed to amuse him, "Yeah I could go for some food." He walked beside her as they went back to their curious friends, who had both stood up during their encounter with the stranger, "They have this HUGE pizza, like, bigger than probably… eight of your heads put together."

"Sounds gross…" Lucy admitted, getting a frown from Natsu, "What? Why would any one person need a pizza that big?"

"Who said I ate it by myself?"

She gave him a blank look, "I doubt the food coma could've happened any other way."

Natsu laughed again.

"I'll just decide when we get there." She stated and went to untie Plue from the table, then grabbed the water she'd gotten as a prize from winning their competition.

"…Hey… quick question." The teen spoke as he grabbed Happy and placed him on his shoulder again, the cat's usual spot, "How'd you get that guy to apologize?"

"How did I get him to apologize?" She repeated and he nodded.

"I didn't really… I mean…" Lucy thought for a moment, "All I did was point out what he did was wrong and tell him why. It was up to him to apologize or not." She began walking, "I find it better to educate a person on why what they're doing is bad rather than blowing up in their faces about it- tends to work better in my opinion. You don't really get anywhere just getting mad at someone."

"Hm…" Natsu took her words in, applying them to all the times he'd had run-ins with men like that. Never had he really thought to talk calmly to them, or rather they didn't give him the chance. They would always just lunge for him, trying to pick a fight, which worked, so there really wasn't any time for talking…

_I guess I'll try that next time…_ He thought to himself. It was a good idea, and it seemed to work from what he saw. Though he didn't know how different it would sound coming out of his mouth.

"Natsu?"

"Hm- yeah?" He picked his head up, he'd unconsciously been looking at the ground, and turned to the blonde, "What?"

"Was that all you wanted to ask?"

"Oh. Yeah that was it. Thanks."

Lucy's brows furrowed, wondering if that was really all, but let it go, changing the topic to something else as they walked on.

* * *

Some hours passed and they got their food. In the end Lucy gave into his wanting pizza, and they got what was called a "Mega Pizza". A bit of a lackluster name, she thought, but the actual thing was anything but. He'd been right. It was definitely about the size of eight of her heads put together, and was making Plue, poor thing, drool like a maniac. The food had taken up most of the table they were sitting at, which was quite something in itself, but the toppings he chose… she didn't even want to remember it. Thankfully, they'd split the pizza in half. One side was her choice of toppings and the other was his.

After that, since they were closer to her home than his, they took the leftovers, which was probably more than the amount of two large pizza's, back to her house and decided to leave Happy as well as Plue there. Plue, being the puppy he was, got tired easily so he was wiped by the time they got there. And Happy, who wasn't looking necessarily tired, had been chosen to keep Plue company by Natsu, giving his owner a "if I have to" look before the two departed again.

Now, they were walking around town, about hour after having left her house the second time, talking about unimportant things while enjoying the cool breeze the shaded sidewalk offered.

"I don't know…" Natsu mumbled, agitation coloring his voice, "This is weird…"

"What is with you and the word weird…" She huffed and rubbed her hands together, "It's not that hard. Just take your time."

"…It's not working." He grumbled and stopped walking, staring down at his hands angrily, "It won't- Lucy, it won't come off."

She giggled at his expression and moved a little closer to the teen, "Okay, calm down. That's the key. You have to be patient and go slow. It'll only get tighter if you get frustrated with it."

Natsu tried it again, taking her words into account, but ended up making the thing tighter, "It ain't coming off!" He exclaimed, completely vexed with his situation.

Lucy sighed, "Okay, okay hold on. I'll get it off." The blonde stepped in front of the man and reached for his tanned hands, laughing at the Chinese finger trap that refused to let him take it off.

They'd stopped by a knickknack store a little earlier, Lucy practically flew into the store when she saw it, and she ended up buying a few things- nothing she couldn't easily fit into her jacket pocket. She hated having to lug around shopping bags. Anyway, Natsu had explained he never tried one before, much to her astonishment- he seemed like the type of guy to have tried a Chinese finger trap- and almost immediately she made him try it out. And that's what he'd been doing for the ten minutes they'd been away from the store.

Lucy took his hands , or rather his two index fingers, into her own and began trying to pull the thing off. For a moment it was going well and seemed to come off easily, but she decided she wanted to mess with him a little before freeing his fingers.

"Umm…" She feigned a worry ridden voice, keeping her eyes on the finger trap, "This isn't as easy as I thought… I think… I think it may be stuck…"

"What?!" Natsu panicked. He really didn't want to have to live the rest of his life with a damn finger trap connecting his hands together, "Are you sure?! I thought you said you could get it off!"

The rosy haired teen moved his head much closer to Lucy's, without her knowledge, trying to get a better look just as she decided to let him in on the prank. "Haha! It's fine, it's fine. I was jokin-"

She faced upward, not knowing how close he'd gotten, and went silent at the lack of space in between them. The blonde could feel his breath on her face; it was warm and smelled of the caramel he'd just eaten. His eyes were a dark green, full of the innocent panic her prank made him feel and in a split second she felt like her legs were turning into some form of jelly.

"Wait- you were joking?"

The girl snapped out of her hazy thoughts and stepped backwards, getting back to the normal amount of personal space between them, "I- uh… Yeah. I was joking. Look." She pulled off the finger trap easily, and set it in his palm, releasing his hands as she did.

"Sweet freedom." He stated with a grin on his face and held up both his hands, clenching and unclenching them- an action that Lucy, given what just happened, couldn't help but stare at.

_What was that?!_ The blonde mentally cursed at herself, _Get a grip. Calm down. He was just a little close- that's al-_

"Lucy?" Natsu spoke her name and stepped a little closer, peering at her face, "Somethin' wrong?"

Shaking her head, she stepped back and said, "It's nothing. I just got caught in my thoughts for a second…"

"Oh… alright." He let it go easily, not noticing how red her ears had gotten and looked around, trying to get a hold on where they were exactly when he spotted a poster, letting out a small "Ah." at the sight of it.

"What is it?" Lucy asked and followed his line of sight with her eyes, noticing what he saw as well.

Placed on the window of a bakery was a busily designed poster reading "ANNUAL END OF SUMMER FESTIVAL! SPONSORED BY YOUR LOCAL FAIRY TAIL ODD JOBS! GET READY FOR A TON OF FUN DOWN BY THE BEACH!"

"They're already spreadin' these around, huh?" Natsu rubbed his neck, remembering last year's festival and how crazy thin they'd been spread due to lack of planning, "Guess it makes sense."

Lucy kept on reading the poster, and spun around with wide eyes when she was finished, "You guys hold a festival?!" Her voice took on a high pitch, clearly overexcited at the news, "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Uh… I didn't real-"

"Wait, never mind. It doesn't matter! How big is it?!" Despite being embarrassed by their earlier proximity, she stepped closer to him, staring his face down with pure joy.

"S'pretty big. All the locals get together and provide their own stalls filled with their food and merchandise. Some of them even make stuff for a limited time that's only for the festival. Then there's a lot of games and competitions to get in, a Miss Magnolia contest, and at the end of it all there's this huge fireworks show." he answered the eager teen. "They've been holdin' one every year since before I got here so it's a pretty big deal for everyone… I think you need to breathe…" Natsu stopped, worried about the color Lucy's face was turning.

"That sounds amazing! I can't wait! Do I have to sign up to help? Is there going to be a meeting or something? Wait- am I going to be allowed to participate since I'm new?"

The teen put his hands on her shoulders, getting her attention and answering, "No, you don't have to sign up. The boss makes everyone help. There's always a meeting- we just have to wait for him to let us know when. And hell yeah you're gonna participate." He grinned at her, "Doesn't matter if you're new or not."

Lucy got the sudden urge to want to hug the teen, very badly, answering her spitfire questions but bit that feeling back. She'd always wanted to attend a festival. A few years after her mom died, the town they'd been living in decided to throw together a festival of their own. Lucy must've begged more for that than anything else in her life- she desperately wanted to go- but her father, of course, had shot her down. He hadn't even allowed her to go with one of her butlers. Every year after that they held one but Lucy didn't bother asking again. The only thing she asked for was for one of her maids to bring her back a caramel apple and any kind of souvenir.

She grinned back at him, feeling like kid again, and suddenly felt a buzz coming from her jacket.

"Well what do you know?" Natsu chuckled and took out his phone, "Just as we were talkin' about it."

Lucy grabbed hers as well and saw a text from their boss, saying they were to attend a meeting tomorrow night concerning plans for the upcoming festival. "This is great!" She beamed and locked her phone before placing it back inside her jacket pocket.

"Yeah I guess."

"You're not excited?" She questioned.

Natsu shook his head, "I'm excited, don't get me wrong. I just like the actual festival more than the planning stuff. It gets more… work-ish every year."

Lucy didn't know how to respond, she'd never been involved with one before but she at least knew a lot of work had to be put into it. "I'm just happy to be included... It wouldn't matter if preparing was all I got to do."

Natsu gave her a curious glance as he pulled on his scarf. Something in her tone just then seemed… distant? He wasn't too sure. It may have just been him.

"Anyway, now that we have to wait until tomorrow, what now?" She asked the teen standing beside her and grabbed a piece of her loose hair, messing with it so she something to do with her hands.

"Well," He looked down at his watch to check the time, seeing that it was already five in the evening and said, "did you want to head back? It's gonna get dark soon."

Lucy hesitated.

She really didn't want to go home yet… Now that she'd gotten her company, she didn't want to be alone again. Having him with her all day had provided a pleasant distraction from her earlier thoughts, the ones that practically bound her to her house all week, and she didn't want to give that up just yet. It might've been selfish of her, but she just really didn't want to go back to that yet. Actually, she didn't want to go back to that _ever_, but it wasn't like she could keep someone by her side all day every day. Not that she wanted to- that'd be a little excessive- anyway, her point being going home now didn't sound appealing.

"I don't mind being out a little longer." Lucy spoke a little too quietly, she was annoyed with herself for it, and said, "Did _you_ want to go back?"

"Doesn't matter to me. I've got nothing to get to anyway. Where'd you wanna go?" He asked, somewhat relieved she didn't say yes. The rosy haired teen, despite never admitting it to anyone or himself even, didn't want to be alone either.

"No idea." The blonde admitted and shook her head. The town was still a mystery to her. Even now she didn't have a clue as to how to get back to her house from where they were.

"Have you been to the beach yet?" He suggested, kind of proud of the idea. If she hadn't, he'd really like to be the first person to show it to her- the way she reacted to things made him happy for some reason. She was fun to watch, he supposed, and with the way the beach looked he wanted to see what kind of face she'd make when seeing it.

"Oh!" Lucy's eyes lit up, "No, I haven't been yet."

"It's decided then!" He threw his fist in the air and got looks from the people passing by, "The beach it is!"

* * *

"Um… okay this isn't uh… I mean it's nice… but um…" Lucy was at loss for words at the moment and Natsu wanted nothing more than to bury himself in the sand.

"What the hell…" Natsu groaned and turned his back to the scene in front of them, putting a hand on his forehead, "I swear it wasn't like this last time. Goddamn couples…" He muttered under his breath.

Before them was a very nice beach with clear waters and a nicely colored sky, but also before them was an unusual amount of couples not holding back an ounce of their… couple-ness.

It was an intense make out spot.

Natsu had unintentionally led her to make out city.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…" He apologized, rubbing his temples. "After you'd been all excited too…"

"No um…" she cleared her throat, "the beach is… the beach is nice. You were right about that… The water looks really… nice. So does the um… sand... Do you wanna go down?"

"_What_?" His head whipped back to look at her instantly, disbelief coloring his cheeks and voice.

"Not for _that_!" She yelled, wanting to slap the expression off his dumb face, "I just wanted to see the water!" Though, if she were to be honest about it, she couldn't deny having someone to be like that with wouldn't necessarily be a _bad_ thing. But never would she _ever_ do what these couples were doing in public…

"O-oh, right." Natsu coughed and turned back to the beach, "Are you uh… you sure?"

Lucy eyed him and put her hands on her face, hoping to cool it down while looking back at the beach, "On second thought…" She stared for a few more seconds, waiting for something to completely change her mind, and then turned away once something did, "never mind."

Natsu sighed. He was disappointed with the turn of events until he recalled a nice spot he used to hang out at all the time when he was younger. "D'you wanna go to the cliffside instead? From what I can remember it's just as nice."

Lucy looked skeptical, "You aren't leading me to another place full of sex-crazed teens again are you?"

"God no." Natsu shook his head, "Let's get out of here."

Lucy agreed and they were about to walk away but not before Natsu could shout, "GET A ROOM YOU DAMN PERVS. YOU'RE RUININ' THE BEACH."

He got a lot of middle fingers in response, to which he replied generously.

After about thirty minutes full of walking, sort-of climbing up a wooded cliff, and Lucy complaining that she wouldn't have agreed to go if she knew she had to be a pro hiker to make the trip, they reached the spot Natsu had been talking about. They were at the very edge of the cliff, where the trees died out and where the town met the water down below. Natsu had discovered it years ago, thinking it was his own personal hideaway but had somehow forgotten about it until now. Though, as he looked out onto the water, he couldn't imagine why he'd ever forget about a place that offered a view like what he was seeing.

"Well," Lucy stood beside him and spoke up, her hair whipping about in the chilled wind the cliffside had to offer, "You were wrong about it being just as nice…"

Natsu was about to question her sanity when she spoke again, "This is _way_ nicer…" She smiled, "And there's no "pervs" to see here." Lucy mimicked the way he had shouted the word to the couples back at the beach, laughing at the recent memory.

Natsu watched the blonde turn around and heard her mention how she could see most of the town- he only said a "yeah" in reply and let her get lost in trying to find the places she knew of. He was a little distracted.

The teen moved closer to the edge and sat down, letting his feet hang off the edge. They were pretty high up, but it didn't bother him. He liked heights. They gave him a nice feeling. He used to go hiking with his dad all the time when he was younger- they'd make a few days trip out if it- and every time they reached the very top of what they were climbing, his dad made this… expression. An expression that, at the time he couldn't tell what it was but now understood, showed his earnest want for adventure. Maybe that's where he'd gone off to? Natsu shrugged that thought off and went back to admiring the view. He wouldn't mind a little adventure himself, in fact he wanted it. But actually doing it, leaving everyone behind- he knew that would be extremely difficult.

He sighed and scratched his head. Damn vastness of the ocean, making him get all screwy in the head…

"I couldn't find anything…" Lucy suddenly appeared beside him again with a pout on her face, and sat down, putting her own legs over the edge.

Natsu laughed, "Bummer."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, neither of them minding it, but then Natsu remembered he had a tease card to play. And oh was it going to be sweet due to all the times she'd messed with him earlier that day. She wouldn't be expecting it either! Natsu was getting a little too excited for it.

"So… you wanna make jalapeno poppers, huh?" He grinned mischievously and busted into a hearty laugh when her eyes widened.

"You told me you didn't look!" She yelled and quickly stood up, probably a little _too_ quickly because she stumbled, which wasn't a good thing to do on the edge of a cliff, but caught herself.

"I don't recall…" Natsu feigned ignorance, getting a kick out of her reaction.

"Sh-shut up!" She fumed, angry at the warmth on her face, and turned her head away, an even worse pout spreading on her mouth, "You seemed all disappointed when I told you I didn't know how to make them and it annoyed the hell out of me later that day so I ended up asked Mira to give me her recipe."

Natsu stood up as well, much more gracefully than she did, and said with a silly, toothy grin, "I can't wait to try them." Now that he was thinking of them, he wouldn't mind a huge basket full…

"No! You don't get to try them now!" She retorted, trying not to let his smile affect her. "Why did you bring it up all of a sudden anyway?"

"Well you've been messing with me all day so I wanted to get even." He replied as if she should've seen it coming.

Lucy huffed, blowing her bangs out of her face and still trying to will the blush on her face away, "You're so rude."

"Ha! _I'm_ rude?" Natsu threw his head back with a short laugh and said, "Like I said, you've been pranking me all day! How am I rude?"

"Just are." Lucy replied curtly, her pink nose, it was pink due to the temp. that went down slowly with the sun, sticking up slightly.

"That's not a go-" Natsu was about to defend himself, not seeing where she was getting this "rude" business from when he felt a buzz in his pocket. Another text.

Sticking an idex finger up to Lucy, telling her to hold on a second, he grabbed his phone and saw the sender was Gajeel. He tapped the screen, getting into the message, and read that his friends were having a barbecue over at Fairy Hills, drinks courtesy of Mira and Lisanna. They did this pretty often. Even though they pretty much partied and drank almost every night at the warehouse, the barbecues were mostly made up of the younger people in FT. Needless to say why it was only them, really.

"Oh sweet." Natsu grinned and quickly replied to Gajeel before shoving his phone back into his pocket along with his keys, the reason why it was so banged up. "You wanna go over to Fairy Hills?" He asked the blonde, "Everyone's heading over for food and drinks."

Lucy, who was still a little upset over the teasing, questioned, "What… like a party?"

"Guess so. If you call getting somewhat drunk and eatin' a whole lotta meat with some music in the background a party?"

Lucy couldn't help but think he was telling her his own _personal_ version of the gathering, but replied, "Um, sure. Sounds fun. You don't mind if we stop and check on Plue and Happy do you? I don't like leaving him alone for too long."

Natsu nodded and began walking down the steep cliff, entering the trees again, "Yeah sure. I was gonna mention it. I don't think Happy'll appreciate me leaving him at your house all night, especially not when he has a date tonight."

Lucy quickly followed behind, saying, "A _date_? How does a cat have a date?"

Natsu chuckled, "He's in a, and I quote, "deep and unprecedented love" with Wendy's cat Carla. Little dude's head over heels for the girl."

"That's so cute…" Lucy wanted to clutch her heart, but her hands were preoccupied with trying to keep herself balanced.

"Right?" The teen agreed, not being able to deny that it was, and stopped when he came to a sudden drop on the ground. For a moment he sized the height difference up, but decided it wasn't too much for him and jumped down, landing on his feet easily.

Lucy looked down at him with a frown.

"You need help getting down?" he asked, a little smile in his voice.

"No." She refused and moved closer to the edge. It wasn't that far down… not really… If she could unintentionally fall off her deck's railing and laugh it off then surely she could _intentionally_ make a safe jump off a small ledge…

"Come on," he moved closer and stuck his arm out, "give me your hand."

She hesitated for two more seconds and then gave in, "Fine…" The girl, honestly, just hadn't wanted to touch his hand again… The warmth she'd felt on her ears earlier hadn't really gone away and to take his hand again would most definitely spell trouble for her.

Why on earth was she so worried about touching another person's hand? It was just a hand for God's sake.

Lucy reached down and put her hand in his, grabbing it tightly as did he. It was warm, unlike hers, and rough, like he'd done a lot with them over the years. They were nicely tanned too… actually, he, in general, was very nicely tanned. Even in the shade of the trees his skin seemed to give off an almost sun like glow… It was pleasant.

"Uhh, Lucy? Are you gonna jump?"

The blonde blinked twice and then very quickly went red from head to toe, or at least that's what it felt like. Without wasting another second, Lucy jumped down, relying on his hand more than she thought, and landed clumsily but landed nonetheless.

"You okay?" Natsu asked, not yet separating their hands.

"Yeah, I'm good. Totally fine." She pulled her hand out of his and stuck it in her jacket pocket, waiting for him to lead the way again.

"Alright…" Natsu didn't completely buy it but figured she probably just got nervous and didn't wanna sprain her ankle or something.

Lucy walked behind him with eyes a little wider than usual, a new warmth creeping up on her neck despite just feeling cold a few second ago. _Maybe deciding to go to this "Fairy Hills" place with him wasn't such a good idea…_ She thought worriedly and on the entire way down she hoped that the rest of the night went smoothly.

If not, she'd probably die from overheating.

* * *

**A/N:** *does a victory lap* I FINALLY FINISHED IT. Dear Go d I thought I'd never do it. I get in the mood to write at the worst times and when I've got spare time my brain decides I'm illiterate. Sorry if there're some mistakes. I read it over twice so I think I caught everything but if I didn't my bad.

Anyway, I'm sure you can guess what the next chapter's gonna be about. ;) Party with the FT youngsters that the older adults never get invited to but wouldn't be thrown out if it they ended up going. Lucy's finally going to get to meet everyone, everyone, and her "unusually close for the time they've known each other" relationship with Natsu is going to be under some intense observation. Also bby girl's beginning to feel what it's like to have a crush for the first time.

As for her "shitty week" I wanted to explain for a second- hope you don't mind that I like to explain things here. That was her falling back into her old habits. Lucy left home without resolving anything at all, so things are bound to come back and mess with her. She thinks she left it all behind but it's not so easy to just leave a life like what she'd been living. Habits and feelings are bound to stick. I don't know if you can tell, but both Natsu and Lucy are becoming each other's temporary cure for loneliness. While Natsu has had his friends/family, there's never been anyone he could really get stuck to, if that makes sense, and Lucy, who's never really had friends, found something in him that makes her feel at home- a feeling she hadn't experienced in a long time. I tried to make that obvious but wanted to give a more literal explanation here. It's not a bad thing, I don't want them to have an unhealthy relationship here, but it's something they'll both have to deal with. Fics that romanticize unhealthy things are a no go for me.

Hope you enjoyed, and thank you for reading and reviewing. Tickles my dumb heart.


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